Something Ends, Something Begins
by Paersephone
Summary: When she realized that she has been reincarnated in a world where you can spit streams of fire and kill as easily as you breathe, Hitomi has decided that it's better to be prepared. Her plans might hurt some very powerful people, but she'll be ready. And in her new life, she's surrounded with powerful allies. (T for violence) TRANSLATION. WIP
1. Rebirth

Hi there ! So this gem of a story is from my very good friend Zachanariel ( /u/4798775 ) who is currently writing it in French. I am the honoured beta-reader of the French version, and since I've just finished my very lengthy last translation, I was looking for another huge project to tackle on and she offered to give me the right to translate it, so YAY ! This is a wonderful, very, _very _long story and she will oversee my translation so I'm sure not to mess it up. Anyways, I love this to bits and I hope you will too ! If you're an impatient reader who knows some French, you can go to her profile and read ahead, but be warned ; it has some very complicated words in it. Also, the first three chapters will be posted once they are translated, but in the future this translation will be updated every sunday.

One last thing : Zachanariel speaks english so I'll lend her my logs in order for her to be able to answer personnally to any review you leave.

Please enjoy !

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She regained consciousness engulfed in chaos and noise — slight, muffled, but noise nonetheless. Her last memory was a hospital bed, with a stiff mattress and abrasive covers ; she could hear a slowly fading high pitched noise that never seemed to end. The noise and the sight had faded in a soft and warm darkness. Her last momentum before that still permeated her confused soul, a mind-numbing mix between regrets and despair. She had never done anything really bad in her life but she had not created anything truly good, either. She had been one of those unremarkable, countless souls, wandering without a goal and without will, without hope and without shine.

And she lamented that. She regretted that so much... She hadn't made an imprint, would never last in memories. This was probably a bit uncommon, but she was absolutely sure that within a few years, she would just be a name on a lonely gravestone, lost within its sort with beautiful, melancholic flowers at their feet.

She had died alone, in a palliative hospital room that was designed for the dying — they never actually used those words in that place, of course. Her only companions had been a faithful computer that had been there for her until the end and and an e-book reader she had not used enough if you asked her. They would both probably be seized, like the rest of her belongings, to pay for her hospital bills. She didn't know and didn't care — she had forgotten all of those concerns sometime during her last hour to live.

Just before she had closed her eyes for the last time, the hazy and tired memory forever burned inside her mind, she had used her very last thought to beg for another chance. Although she had never believed in a superior being, had always thought that those conflicted faiths were pointless, she had put all of her last will into the hands of an unkown, superior entity. And her wish had been granted.

She didn't understand what was happening around her, the same noises that were so muffled she couldn't make sense of any of them, the agitation she only perceived because of the moving air around her. She didn't see anything, either, and her sense of smell was completely messed up.

The first things she recognized were hands. Or at least the feeling of them, the warm skin, a bit coarse, and their size... Their unthinkable size, enormous, able to pick her up as if she weighted nothing and become incredibly tiny.

Then the hands put her down on an even warmer and soft thing. The feeling was so strinking that it calmed down the screams that rung within and outside her. The same instinct that had made here scream — and stop screaming — made her utter a few satisfied, animal sounds, one of her limbs twitched, and then...

Slumber, that she welcomed like a blessing, as if she had just ran a marathon.

It took her a few very long months to understand what had happened to her. She had never thought any of this was possible. To her, reincarnation stories were just that : fiction. But wasn't it what she had asked for, in a way ? A way for the superior being that had heard her last and unique prayer to give her another chance ? One had to be careful when formulating a wish : results weren't always expected. There was always a loophole.

And she had certainly not planned to reincarnate herself.

Obviously, she still kept all of her previous life's memories, which had its own batch of downsides. Worst of it all was boredom. She was pretty sure normal babies didn't know of boredom. They didn't know of much, in all likelyhood. To her, boredom was a calamity. No matter how much she slept, she still had way too much time being sat or half-sat, whatever her parents had chosen, and she couldn't do anything but try and watch a world that was still too hazy for her to really distinguish anything. Meals begun and meals ended, each one similar to the one before, and always when she just started to feel angry. That probably meant that her parents were paying attention to her. Or at least, she hoped so.

However, boredom didn't explain the feeling that had appeared barely a few days after her birth, and had never left ever since. She felt like something was crawling under her skin, pinching, pulling and tingling all the same, constantly. It would have driven her crazy if she hadn't realized that focusing on her previous life's memories helped a bit. Somehow, and not perfectly, but helped. For it to work, she had to focus all of her thoughts on the memories and she begun to sort them out in an imaginary world, that she had created out of boredom and because she wanted to escape the mind-numbing feeling eating her alive under her skin.

Her mind, in the course of a few months, had became a vast library, every memory tidied in a book that had its name on it, and the books were sorted in rows — every row had its subject — and the rows were sorted in sections — global subjects. For every big topic (fictions, sciences, personal life, languages, she had quite of number of them) she had built a floor, and the tower already reached high in the clouds of her mind, ready for every new theme that would dominate her coming life.

During her first life, she already had an extraordinary memory, able to cling to every little detail and virtually never forget any of them. She remembered being envied for it, as if being able to forget wasn't a formidable advantage related to, for example, human relationships. She was not able to forget, whenever someone had hurt her. Resentment, anger, hurt always remained in her heart, unable to leave. Every forgiveness she had ever granted to anyone that had offended her had been a lie, and, time passing, people ended up realizing it. She was the proverbial dog with a bone.

These days, it was really useful to her. When the mysterious itching was too strong for her to bear, since she wasn't able to protect herself from them or to stratch them, she used her Library — she liked naming this kind of thing — and locked herself in it until she fell asleep, narrating her favourite books from her previous life, or seeing the movies she had liked the most in her mind. It worked, to a certain extent, but her skin was haunted by this phantom force, and her parents didn't seem to realize anything about it.

The weak, muffled earing she had had at first when she came back to life was nothing but a memory now. She could hear properly, and she was getting better every day. First, she had recognized her mother's voice, the one who spoke to her more often, although she didn't understand the language. She spoke with a soft, warm voice, and she could easily understand the emotions within the words, even if she couldn't understand the words themselves. Then, she recognized her father's deep, striking voice, although he wasn't around much to whisper in her ear. Her instinct had told her that they were her parents, and the hypothesis was confirmed when she started understanding a few words in their sentences.

She couldn't speak Japanese, but she had been very interested in manga, anime and overall Japanese culture. During her previous life, she had dreamt of learning this language. Perhaps had she been reincarnated into this family to get a chance to learn it ? Fortunately, she had been sufficiently engulfed in the language to understand a few basic words, and once she realized she would need this knowledge, she ran to her Library to browse through her database.

A few weeks after her sense of hearing had recovered, she understood her name, Hitomi. She didn't know what it meant, but remembered that in Japan, names were very important, far more than in her first country. She would be sure to discover her name's significance, once she would learn what kanjis were used to write it. Was it something pretty, that would show to the world how much her parents had loved her even before she was born ? She couldn't help but hope so.

A few months after her rebirth, her eyesight got sufficiently better and Hitomi was finally able to distinguish her environment. She finally understood exactly how bad she was fucked. The superior entity, whatever it was, had played the worst joke of the whole Universe, projecting her in a world where civilians were seen as trivial and ninjas, the only one to have true power besides the feodal lords, could kill with litterally one glance.

Oh, she had loved reading this manga. She had read it frantically, from the first page to the last one, using scans when she couldn't afford a lot of books for her to keep, when she had been admitted to the hospital to slowly die there, surrounded by antiseptic smells and sad colours. Naruto had been one of the stories that had given her a bit of happiness and oxygen, helping her to fall asleep with a smile on her lips when she had understood that nobody would ever come and visit her except for the nurses and doctors. She hadn't been surprised, but still. The medical staff had seen her new whim with a smile, and she had put a great deal of her emotions in paper characters and inked voices. Yes, she had loved Naruto as an entertainment, a work of art.

But living there ? It was an absolute catastrophe. When Hitomi saw the headband on her father's forehead, the awful sensation under her skin rose up like a fire and she started screaming, again and again, and she screamed so much that she felt the unforgettable taste of blood in her sore throat. She could hear above her shouts her mother's distressed cries, who didn't know what to do except to take her red, shaking body to the hospital. The screams gathered a few ninjas on duty and they provoked yet more screams, the feeling becoming even more abrasive. She ended up losing consciousness, exhausted by the burning pain.

A few moments later, she was in the depths of her Library and running to the floor that enclosed all of her readings. It only took her a moment to get to the section dedicated to Naruto, which was so dear to her heart, and to move it to another brand new floor that would be dedicated to her new world. She named this floor "canon knowledge" and started to read frantically each and every one of the numerous volumes she had stored there, refreshing her memory.

She woke up with the drafts of a plan in her mind — and to her mother's worried hand was stroking her forehead. She was a beautiful woman, tall and thin, with black, curly hair that danced around her shoulders with every move she made, and gorgeous red eyes. Hitomi had never paid much attention to the colour before, thinking it was just a genetic quirk, but now... She only knew of one woman in this universe that had eyes like those. Kurenai Yūhi was her mother, then... That complicated things. Because Hitomi's father was definitely not Asuma.

He wasn't a smoker, for starters, and he didn't look like any of the characters she had seen on paper. Kurenai was quite similar to the drawings Hitomi had seen of her, although her voice was completely different from the anime's — of which she had seen few episodes — and the way she moved was different too, but the basics were here.

"Boys ! She's awake. You can come in, rather than pace around and scare the nurses."

Hitomi couldn't help but babble joyously when she heard her mother. Okay, she really needed to learn how to talk, and quickly. At least now she understood most of the words she heard, even if she knew that learning how to write wouldn't be as easy. Memory wasn't everything.

When her father came in, followed by a man that looked a lot like him, the baby's breath caught in her chest. Because she knew the second man. Tall, thin, a carefully crafted nonchalant — and dangerous — gait, he wore his hair in a ponytail that was short enough to create pikes of hair behind his head. He had a neat goatee that made his face seem more angular, just as the two scars that marred his temple and right cheek. On top of his Jōnin uniform, he wore a stag-skin jacket she recognized instantly.

Her father looked exactly like Shikaku Nara. Like a t0/brother.t1/ Shit. Shikaku Nara, the tactical genius of Konoha, was her uncle. She was really, really in deep shit now and it seemed like every discovery she made about this new world was making things worse. Soon, she would discover that Ibiki Morino was her babysitter and she wouldn't even bat an eye because she was already so fucked it wouldn't change a single thing.

She mentaly shook herself, already half engulfed in her Library. She certainly didn't need to add panic attacks to the list of her problems, right ? She didn't know if everything would go well or for the best, but she wasn't defenseless. She knew things those people didn't know. Okay, she wasn't able to make deadly lightning strokes or create fire at will like some ninjas she knew about, but she did have a weapon. Knowledge was power.


	2. Kyūbi

One night, as Hitomi had just fallen asleep after spending the day trying to pronounce actual words instead of meaningless babbling, an awful feeling suddenly woke her up. Since the revelation episode, her voice had slightly changed, the sound of it now slightly worn by the scars in her throat because of her never ending scream. Although she remembered the very particular pain, the taste of her own blood on her tongue, she started screaming in her bed next to her mother's which was still empty while a savage, unhealthy chakra was scorching her skin.

This sensation seemed worse, a thousand time worse than the feeling of her own chakra, because they attacked and stimulated each other. She screamed and screamed into the night, absolutely terrified, unable to stop and think even for a moment. She would have understood, if she had managed to do just that. Because that feeling, even though she had never experienced it before, could only belong to one entity in this world.

She heard the noise of a panicked run, and suddenly the door opened and yellow light flew in from the hallway. Hitomi, despite her panic and pain, recognized one of their neighbours, a civilian that worked in a Nara clan's pharmacy and sometimes took care of her when her parents weren't home. It wasn't the first time that the young girl was inside her home, so the baby didn't worry about that, although she didn't yet understand why her mother wasn't with her.

She would understand later, but as Anako the neighbour took her into her arms and broke into a run in Konoha's streets, she could just see the devastation far away, the sound of dozens of men and women fighting and dying, their chakras exploding in negligible quantities in front of the titan that was their opponent. Kyūbi was attacking, and she was screaming, terrified and in terrible pain, her mind and body hurting as if they were on fire. Even her Library was powerless and couldn't bring her the peace she so desperately needed.

Promptly, Anako arrived at the nearest shelter with her precious cargo and after giving her ID to the guarding ninja, crept through the narrow passageway that almost faded completely in the mountain. The shelter was already crowded, full of scared civilians. Hitomi looked at each and every one of them, with their pale faces under the naked, cold light. Her temporary guardian was stroking her back with feverish moves. She wanted her mother. Her father.

In the shelter, the other chakra's sensation had become less unbearable, but she could still feel it, and feel all of the fighters' energies outside. If she focused strongly enough, she could even track down her parents, but she refrained from doing so. She didn't want to be connected to their living energy if they died.

Somewhere between the house and the rock shelter, her screams had transformed into cries. She wasn't the only one crying; a blond-haired civilian with the Uchiha crest on her clothes was rocking a sobbing child who seemed inconsolable. She could see this kind of scene everywhere, and equally terrified parents who tried to comfort the youngest, with limited success.

Somewhere in Hitomi's mind, deeply buried, a cold strength awoke and stirred, analysing the situation. If Kyūbi's attack, which happened shortly after the last war, was this traumatizing for the civilians, then what would it be once the actual canon events occurred ? She had, since the revelation, thought about staying a civilian, safe from danger and trouble that invariably came with being a ninja. But she didn't want to be this powerless. She didn't want to have to sit in the dark and wait for news of the people that fought for her safety.

She had only one choice left, barely safer, barely more reassuring: enrol as soon as possible in the Academy, do well in her studies, and become strong. As strong as possible. By making that choice, she was exposing herself to every danger that existed to her knowledge, possibly more even, but at least, she would never again be in this unbearable waiting state, would never be defenceless if danger stroke - and it would strike, she was sure of it.

Next morning, the shelter's door opened and two ninjas came in, obviously highly ranked. Hitomi didn't understand everything they said, but Anako did, and she got to her feet, the baby still in her arms, before going back to their respective houses. The streets were devastated. Had Kyūbi made its way this far into the village? Some of the areas were completely destroyed. How sad...

Hitomi's home was empty when Anako made her way in. The ninjas were all probably in the hospital still, to get healed, or to report to the Hokage. The child hated the silence in the living room, as if life had pressed pause and waited for an absent signal to get back into movement. The child's worried eyes were looking for her parents, although she knew they weren't there. She could feel their absence. Their chakra, that had became the last few months a reassuring force, were not there.

Only her mother came back, while the sun had long begun its course downwards in the sky. She was visibly exhausted and the skin around her eyes was red. The moment she saw her baby, the young woman hid her face behind her dirty, bloodied fingers and started sobbing, and the little girl who didn't understand began to cry. Maybe she didn't want to understand. Kurenai was back - Shikano wasn't.

She had always felt conflicted between her toddler body and adult soul, but this time her whole body and her whole soul wept for the father she had known for less than a year and yet loved so much, for his caring tenderness, his soft, deep voice, his gigantic hands and his laugh that seemed to resonate in his whole body. She cried with her mother for the goatee that had tingled her and the smile that had illuminated the whole house, his loving eyes and the callous, patient fingers that had sculpted every single figures that decorated her room, she wept for the way he tucked her in at night and the last look he used to send to her mother before leaving for a mission, she cried and cried again until sleep, finally, collapsed on her.

Later, she awoke in Kurenai's arms. The vibration of the sad song she had be lulled with was like a balm on the wound left by Shikano Nara's death. A loving father, a deserving son, a brave brother. It wasn't the lullaby that had awakened her, however, but the knocks on the front door.

"You can come in, Father."

Her mother had a father and he was still alive? Hitomi didn't remember anything about that. It was probably never put in the manga... Yes, it was quite possible. Definitely awake now, she laid her eyes on the man that strode through the front door. Just like his daughter, he was tall, and had shoulder-length hair under his Konoha headband that he wore as a bandana. His eyes had the genetic double crimson circle, and his hands and his throat had quite a few numbers of scars. His face, however, was only marred by age and his lifestyle roughness.

"I've heard about Shikano. I'm sorry."

"You should have let me help him!" Kurenai replied angrily. "It's your fault if none of the young Jōnin were in the front line!"

"And what would have happened then, Kurenai? What if the demon fox had killed you both? Did you think about your daughter's life should that have happened? Don't you think this cursed night has made enough orphans?"

He had raised his voice, and Hitomi let out a long, worried whine. Adults did not often talk loudly in this house, Kurenai was careful about it. The young, grieving mother's eyes, hard and full of anger, fell on her daughter, getting instantly softer. Tenderness in her eyes fought a hard battle with pain and solitude that Hitomi had never seen before and whose ghosts would haunt her from now on.

"You... You're right, Father. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have blamed you..." Kurenai apologized.

"I won't hold it against you. It has been a rough night."

If she had been able, Hitomi would have laughed upon hearing this bitter euphemism. A rough night indeed for the dozens of corpses that littered Konoha's streets while civilians were finally authorised to leave the emergency shelters. A rough night for those like her who had lost a parent in this massacre or worse, both parents ; a rough night for those who'd lost a friend, a lover, a brother, a sister ; a rough night for Uchiha clan which would endure from this very day the schemes of a greedy, paranoid counsellor.

But her, she knew who was to blame. And she would make him pay for the blood that had been, was and would be spilled. She would make him pay by constantly putting a spoke in his wheels, by being a pain in his arse, and he wouldn't even know her name or what she looked like. Oh yes, she would make him pay, until his unhealthy soul self destroyed itself.

She didn't have a plan yet, but she would soon enough. Closing her eyes, she pretended to fall asleep in her mother's soft, warm arms, instantly going into her Library. She climbed the stairs until she reached the right floor and went through the shelves. The sections that weren't about canon knowledge were starting to fill up, slowly, but it was difficult to gather intelligence when one was a mere baby.

Her determined gait stopped in front of the book named Madara. She would deal with Danzō later, but he was on the list as well. "Know your enemy" was an saying Hitomi had liked during her first life. She didn't have a lot of information concerning the founders of Konoha, but she had everything she needed to build a merciless plan; whatever she would need, she could gather during the upcoming years. Silently, she started reading, drowning herself in knowledge and in her Library's silence.

When she finally stirred, night had fallen. She was settled into the baby carrier that her mother had recently had refit, but her grandfather was carrying her while Kurenai was busy cooking. The smell of food awoke Hitomi's senses everytime someone was cooking in the house. She couldn't wait until she was past milk at every meal. And nappies. Ugh.

During the whole evening, Hitomi listened to the adults' conversation. She learned that Uchiha clan's ostracizing had already begun, and would continue in the days to follow, that the village was slowly being rebuilt thanks to numerous ninjas with Doton affinity. The funeral ceremony for those fallen during the attack would be two days from now, and every villager was invited, even the civilians. Even they had lost loved ones after all.

Soon, it was time for her to go to sleep. She felt like she had slept the whole day. At least, while sleeping, she wasn't bored anymore, not in her Library. She had opened a new section dedicated to Japanese in the languages section, and her oral lexicon was getting bigger every day. She spent the night listening to the words she had learned today until she could say them in her mind perfectly, since her body didn't have enough maturity as of yet to be able to pronounce coherent sounds. When the night came to an end, she was satisfied, felt rested, and a bit of her grief had softened.


	3. Shōgi

Until she reached three years old, nothing much happened in Hitomi's life. She spent a lot of time with her mother, and with her deceased father's clan. Shikaku Nara had a newborn baby and often turned up unexpected in the middle of the night, frantic and panicked, to ask for some advice to Kurenai and bring back said advice to his wife. It was funny seeing him like that, with a disarrayed ponytail and the slightly fazed look of new parents, but Hitomi was careful not to mock him.

He was her favourite uncle, after all, and not only because she needed to be close to him for the sake of her plan against Danzō. He was a kind, peaceful man, and he wasn't as much as a slacker as people said he was. He was terribly smart, too, and he had been the first to understand that Hitomi was very advanced for her age. When Yoshino was babysitting the little girl for Kurenai, she gave her vocabulary lessons, far more difficult than what other children were learning. Hitomi was delighted.

Since she could walk and talk, even if both abilities were still a bit clumsy, she felt much more relieved. She felt freer, safer. She had yet to learn anything that would be useful for her plans, but she collected every information she could get her mind on, never ignoring any. One never knew, after all, they might prove useful later.

The day after her third birthday, Kurenai woke Hitomi up, way earlier than what she was used to. She was clad in a dark blue exercise outfit, that clung to her body and that the little girl had never seen on her. When her mother helped her into a similar outfit, she raised an eyebrow and waited for the kunoichi to answer her unsaid question.

"There's a big difference between clan children and civilian-born children," Kurenai said. "Do you know what it is?"

"Clanborn children," answered the little girl, "begin training way before going to the Academy, while civilians start from nothing when they begin their classes."

"Exactly. You know that you are from two clans; the Nara clan, your father's and uncle's clan, and the Yūhi clan, of which your father and I are the last living remnants. You are one too, of course."

"Oh... So we're beginning training?"

"Exactly!"

Excited, Hitomi helped her mother to dress her and held obediently still while the long, adept hands gathered her hair in the traditional Nara ponytail. Well, traditional... Her hair was now long enough that it didn't hold on her head with spikes. In her little dark outfit, she was now looking like what people thought ninjas looked like in the Previous World. A tiny ninja, but still.

Obedient, the little girl followed Kurenai, who got out of their house and kept still in the middle of the garden, standing proudly on her two feet. November had just started, but the weather was mild in Konoha : snow hadn't been seen there in more than ten years, if Hitomi believed the chats between her mother and several ninjas that had visited her those three last years. Those visits were precious to the child, who used them to fill up her Library's floor that was dedicated to her new world.

"Okay, let's begin. Get into position like I am, feet spread according to the width of your hips, with a straight back and relaxed arms."

Hitomi obeyed immediately. She was used to this position ; in drama acting, it was the "starting position", from which one built their character's attitude. She knew that here, it wouldn't be the same, and realized that if her brain remembered how she should place her body, her muscle's memory was virtually nonexistent. She had to try three more times, until her feet were spread wide enough and her hands stopped trying to fidget.

"You're doing great, sweetheart," her mother encouraged her. "Now, raise both hands while stretching your arms on the side as much as possible, until your fingers touch above your head."

Guided by her mother's soft voice, Hitomi discovered what would become her daily morning routine. Her mother called it "greeting the sun" and indeed, the sun rose during their exercise. Once that was over, she realized with wonder that she only felt the healthy dose of pain that came with weariness and sports. All of the pains that had haunted her previous body since childhood hadn't followed her in her new life. She was finally free.

After only a few weeks of this routine, Hitomi could already see a few improvements ; her young body was still very malleable and, according to her mother, the more she became flexible during childhood, the suppler she would be as an adult. Later, she could enhance her physical condition with chakra, but for this she needed a fair amount of work first.

This exercise wasn't the only thing Kurenai had planned to teach her daughter. After all, she wouldn't go back to active duty until Hitomi's graduation, so she had a lot of time to give to her daughter. The little girl began to have daily runs, working on speed and stamina, and both were much more enjoyable now that she wasn't out of breath after a few minutes. She also learned strength-building exercises. During the afternoons, her mother took her inside and they both sat around the coffee table. Hitomi learned about hidden village's history, about chakra, and about the Academy. It was obvious that Kurenai had had a conversation with Shikaku; she never repeated previously transmitted information and didn't hesitate to make her daughter an active part of the conversation instead of simply lecturing her.

Hitomi was incredibly happy. She learned a lot of things, and it seemed as if she would never run out of new knowledge to discover. Soon, bored with trying to draw what she learned with her mother, she began to try and reproduce kanji she found on book covers. She realized quickly that her fingers were still far too clumsy to do this but, just like strength, speed and suppleness, it was all about work, so she did just that.

Her daughter was almost four when Kurenai realized she was trying to learn how to write alone, proving without realizing it how Shikaku was right about her. The young mother immediately took matters in her hands to prevent Hitomi from learning any bad habit. She taught her how to trace kanji using the right trait order, and the little girl learned to write, exactly as she had wanted.

It took her a few weeks to memorize both kana syllabary. Her memory was still extraordinary, but her strokes lacked the natural you could only learned by practising and with more mature hands. Then, she went on to kanji. She knew about a few ones, like the one she would some day see on Gaara's temple, but she had to learn the rules about strokes order. It amused her and relaxed her, and thus she practised every night for one hour before bedtime.

By beginning to learn this new material, she grew more independent, sort of. She had until then only met Shikamaru among the other children her age, but Kurenai decided she was ready to meet those who would probably become her future co-workers — only in Nara ground, the only territory that was large enough so adults' chakra couldn't damage her oversensitive meridians, an affliction that had been discovered when she was a baby. Once she reached four years old, she started spending time with her cousin's best friends, Chōji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka. Both children were virtually two sides of a coin; Hitomi had to admit she got along more easily with the peaceful Chōji than with Ino, who was chatty and loud. Her favourite, however, was still Shikamaru.

One evening, he went to her house, overexcited, carefully holding a kind of box against his chest like it was a treasure. His father was a few paces behind him, walking down the street with his lazy, flexible gait. Hitomi often compared him to a feline ; placid but dangerous. It was rare for the little girl to see her cousin in this state. Without waiting for the adult to catch up on him, she opened the door wide and took a step to the side to let them both in. Shikamaru immediately took her harm and muttered that he had something to show to her before dragging her to the other door, which led to the garden.

They didn't reach the grass, choosing to sit on the patio Shikano had built a few months before Hitomi's birth — her mother had told her about it. Behind the wall that surrounded the garden, the sun was slowly going down through the horizon, tinting the few clouds of this summer night with pink and orange colours. For a few seconds, Hitomi got caught in contemplating this coloured immensity, invigorated with the soft shades and the light wind.

"Come on!" said Shikamaru rather loudly, bringing back the girl's attention on him. "Sit in front of me."

Swiftly, while she obeyed, he set between them what really looked like a chess board, without the colours. Hitomi recognized it instantly: Shikaku had taught his son shōgi, then...

"Oh, your father talks about this game sometimes, he plays with ANBU captains! Do you know how to play?"

"Yes, and I'll teach you, Hitomi-chan. My father is a tough opponent, I need someone my own level to be able to learn properly."

She nodded, and like that it was settled. He explained the movement rules while setting the pieces on the board, then all of the other rules during their first game. Hitomi loved Shikamaru for those complicit moments. He never seemed bored when she wanted to talk about complicated things, and he always had a few bits of precious knowledge to add to her collection.

She lost the first three games. Shikamaru had probably made a lot of progress while playing against his father. Like her, he devoured adult's knowledge, often without them being the wiser. The fourth game was longer, way longer. The sun was long gone, yet they were far from the conclusion of their game. Before taking the slightest decision, they thought about every move and every implication of it. Sometime during the game, Kurenai brought them blankets and hot cocoa, but they didn't look away from the board.

Eventually, Hitomi won. She was so happy she leapt to her feet and let out a victorious shout, feeling energized. Shikamaru was looking at her with a proud and satisfied smile. He had found a worthy opponent.

"We better not start another game now. You still have to practise writing, right?"

"I have quite a lot of basic vocabulary down now, so I'm focusing on reading for now. But you're right. Mummy has been nice enough to let us out this late."

The adults were visible through the glass patio door. They were sitting on the sofa and watching them while chatting. They seemed happy, relaxed. With a little sigh, Hitomi slid the patio door and went in, her blanket sitting on her shoulders and her mug between her hands.

"Well," Shikaku said, "you sure got the hang of it pretty quickly, kiddo! I'm sure that in a few years of practise, you and Shikamaru will be able to beat me."

The little girl snorted at that. Shikamaru and her might be thought of as geniuses, but Shikaku was as well, and he had decades of experience ahead of them. They would probably never catch up to him, and it was perfect that way. Shikamaru joined her inside, carefully holding his board as if it was a child, and the evening went lightly on, until it was time for both children to go to bed and for Shikaku — who was supposed to come and pick up his son at the end of the weekend — to go back to his wife a few streets down.

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_Alright so that's three chapters posted ! Please note that from now on, updates will be posted every sunday. I'm joining the army in March and I want to have enough chapters translated to be able to post even though I won't be able to write for a while ! _


	4. Ensui Nara

During Hitomi's fifth birthday, a man who hadn't been seen in the village for years appeared at the border of the Nara territory. He had the clan hairdo, but his hair was a bit too long to stand in spikes behind his head. His smoky gray eyes were underlined with black green eye-liner, which gave him a dangerous and wary look. If stories could be trusted, those two characteristics perfectly applied to him. His name was on every passerby's lips, and they watched him stroll by, gathered around the road without daring to step on it.

Ensui Nara. Konoha's Strangling Shadow. The man who only showed respect and consideration to his clan leader, sometimes even ignoring the Hokage's orders — his own way to say that Hiruzen should never had come back to his old functions, and give the famous hat to Shikaku. The fact that the latter didn't want those responsibilities in the first place didn't matter.

Hitomi watched the man walk in the streets too, her mouth slightly hanging. Although she was getting better at coping with adults' chakra, she was rarely seen in this part of the clan's territory. If she hadn't come to pay a visit to Shikamaru, if Shikaku hadn't planned a birthday party for her, she would not have seen the man that everybody in the clan seemed to respect come home.

"How troublesome..." muttered Shikamaru near her ear.

The little girl looked at her cousin. "Don't you like him?"

"I have nothing against him, but my dad will probably be very busy during the next few days... I wanted him to show me how to hold a shuriken..."

Hitomi nodded, sympathetic. Her mother had started showing her how to hold throwing weapons a few weeks earlier, judging she was ready, but Shikamaru had always seemed to slack a bit concerning his pre-Academy training. Shikaku could easily see through his game though; he only _pretended _to be lazy about his training. But Shikaku was also a clan leader and Jōnin Commander. He had a lot of work to do.

"You should come over some afternoon. My mum is teaching me nowadays. She wouldn't mind explaining it to you as well."

During the time they took to decide which day Shikamaru would pay them a visit, Ensui Nara became nothing more than a distant figure on the road. Cautiously storing the new information she had gathered in her Library, Hitomi laid a hand on her cousin's shoulder and persuaded him to take her to the Deerwoods. They didn't see any animal this day, but still had fun, exactly as they had wanted.

The next morning, someone knocked on Hitomi's door while Kurenai was away, shopping for groceries. In any other district of the village, children were taught not to answer the door when they didn't know who was on the other side of it, but here, deep inside the Nara territory? Nobody was scared. For this reason, Hitomi opened the door, and was dumbstruck when she discovered that Ensui Nara was on the other side.

Okay. That wasn't planned.

"Can I help you, Ensui-san?"

She had learned etiquette rules, after all, and her mother would not be happy if she learned she had disrespected a stranger. Whether or not he was part of the clan was no excuse.

"I'm looking for your mother. Is she home?"

"She went shopping for groceries, she should be back in about twenty minutes. You can wait for her inside, if you want."

This scheme in particular wasn't one of her brightest. Hitomi, by inviting this mysterious man inside her house, had only one hope: for him to talk and give her informations about him, the outside world beyond the village borders... she would accept anything.

When he accepted to come in, she smiled brightly and offered him some slippers they kept for guests. She was happy to be able to practice what her mother had taught her concerning etiquette, even though she thought a lot of the rules were stupid. While he settled in the living room, she picked up the lemonade jug her mother had made the very morning. She knew that one should usually offer tea to their guests, but she was too small to reach the worktop of the kitchen, where the kettle laid. So she put two glasses and the jug on a tray and brought everything to the living room, thanking her mother again in her mind for all the merciless training she had put her through and her limbs' new strength.

"Thank you, kid," said Ensui when she poured a glass of lemonade for him.

He had a faint, amused smile on his lips, as if he was able to see through her game — and he probably could, since almost all Nara clansmen and women were geniuses. Nodding with a polite smile, she sat on the floor, on the other side of the coffee table, analyzing the way he had settled on the couch. It looked like a strange mixture of a graceless slouch and a vain tentative to keep some manners. Every Nara adult she knew behaved the same way. It was strangely cute — if one thought 'cute' could be applied to Ensui.

"You look a lot like him, you know?"

She looked up and met his eyes for a few seconds, not understanding what he meant. As if he felt her confusion, he kept going.

"Shikano. You look like him. I'm not part of the main branch of the clan, but we had the same sensei. I was his first student. I often went on missions with him when they needed an extra Jōnin. He was a good man."

A great deal of Hitomi's sadness from when her father died had been locked away in a book of her Library for a very long time. Bitterness, though, was still around, but she had tamed it enough for her to cope if she had to meet Danzō before her plans had begun. Still, hearing Shikano's name awoke those feelings as if it was the first day. She was unable to forget.

"I'm glad I look like my father, Ensui-san. People don't talk about him much, but I feel like he was a good man indeed. I will do my best to honour his memory."

The man's smile grew larger, and Hitomi had the weird feeling she had just said what he wanted to hear. He bent above the coffee table, raised an arm and gently patted her head. She pretended to frown when his long fingers messed her hairdo, and then shied away, laughing.

"So, kid, Shikaku told me you know how to play shōgi. Do you have a board?"

She nodded and went to her room to fetch it. It was a beautiful thing, ornated with kanji and carefully varnished. Her uncle had gifted it to her the day before, for her birthday. She had only played a few games on it with Shikamaru, and he had never lost on purpose — he knew and respected her enough to give her true defeats, which were full of new knowledge, as well as true victories. She brought back the board to the living room.

Her movements were almost formal when she set the board on the coffee table and opened the two little incrusted drawers, which contained the pieces. Silently, the man and the child put their pieces on the board, then started playing, glancing away occasionally for a sip of lemonade.

Hitomi realized almost immediately that her opponent was the most talented she had ever played against, stronger, even, than Shikaku, and far beyond her and Shikamaru's level. She drank directly from the source of his knowledge, trying to gorge herself with strategies behind every move he made. Her big red eyes were trained on the board as if it was the most fascinating of books. And, in a way, the pieces told her a story — who lives, who dies, who wins, who loses. Sometimes, her breath even caught in her throat. She lost in the end, but in a way, she had won everything.

"I see you play against Shikaku and Shikamaru quite a lot."

"You can tell, Ensui-san?"

"Of course. Every player — every good player — develops their own style, influenced by those who taught them how to play, and honed by their opponents. Maybe your game will take my mark as well."

Hitomi nodded. It made sense. She had learned about stuff like that about chess. She had been surprised when she had realized this game was not yet invented in this universe, like checkers, and had made a mental note to try and bring those new concepts to her cousin. He would love that.

Kurenai came back home in the middle of their third game. If she was surprised to see the Strangling Shadow in her living room, with slippers on his feet and a lemonade glass in his hands, she didn't show any. Without glancing away from the board — it was her turn, after all — Hitomi greeted her mother, her mind entirely focused on the game and her next decision. She couldn't hope beating Ensui, but she owed to him to be the best version of herself. She owed him that, just as she owed it to every one of her opponents, for their victory to be worthy, and their defeat dignified.

"Well," said Kurenai once the game was over. "I know why you're here, Ensui. Shikaku told me about it this morning."

"I will bring the child back to you safe, Kurenai. You know I always bring my team home."

"She's not your _team_! She is a child, and she hasn't even set foot in the Academy yet, and Shikaku made this choice without consulting _me _because he's the clan leader!"

Upon hearing this rare voice raising from her mother, Hitomi tensed, for two reasons. Firstly because she could feel the killing intent Kurenai inadvertently projected, but also because her mother didn't get angry often and such outbursts were not to be taken lightly.

"I know it's not what you want," Ensui pleaded in a calming tone, "but there is no other way. If you want the kid to be able to go to the Academy and become a ninja, she has to learn how to muffle her perception, and you know how skilled I am in that field."

Still intently listening, Hitomi threw the man a look that was half interested, half wary. She had, of course, worried about the Academy and about her career as a ninja. She wasn't able to handle the intensity of some people's chakra, and that was why Kurenai had been allowed to stay in the Nara territory after Shikano's death. It was the only place big enough for ninjas to live far away from one another and for her perceptions not to be overwhelmed. But to leave with this man, wherever he wanted to go... It didn't sound like the beginning of a good plan.

"I know! I know this, all right? Forgive me for not being delighted with sending my daughter on the roads with someone she barely knows!"

The argument kept going like that for a few minutes, while Hitomi sheltered herself in her Library. She examined what she had about Ensui — not much — and the pros and cons of accepting this opportunity. She didn't really have a choice, but she had to do something, right? When she opened her eyes again, she had reached a conclusion. She stood up, and the two adults looked at her. She then went to her mother and hugged her.

"I will miss you," she muttered, her voice muffled by her mother's dress. "But I really, really want to be able to go to the Academy, and I want to take every chance I can get. If I have to leave with Ensui to be able to do so, then I want to go with him, please."

Mother and child exchanged a long look, full of unsaid things and promises. Hitomi would die again, without any hesitation, for Kurenai. She loved her unconditionnally, with this pure love she had missed so much during her first life. Clinging to the fabric she could catch, she took a deep breath to remember her scent and the way her chakra touched her skin. Now that she wasn't projecting any killing intent anymore, Hitomi could only feel the pressure and the softness of her strength and love.

"Okay, sweetheart. I will miss you... First of all, you need to prepare a bag. You will be gone for over a year, but I guess Ensui will ensure you have everything you need. Just take a few clothes, your writing furnitures, your kunai and shuriken, and a few books."

"Over a year?" Hitomi said. "But I'm supposed to go to the Academy next year..."

"And what I'm about to teach you," Ensui cut in, "is very time-consuming. I will also keep doing what your mother started. When you'll get to the Academy, you'll be a year older than your classmates, but you will also be stronger than them. You'll take the Best Rookie spot easily."

Easily, easily... If she counted right, she would start at the Academy at the same time as Naruto's class, and not Neji's like she had believed she would. It would change a few of her plans, would actually make them easier. That way she would be right in the centre of action. Faking an annoyed sigh, she nodded and went to obey her mother's orders, leaving the adults to settle the more complex implications of this new situation.

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_Thank you for the follows, fav and reviews! _

_See you next Sunday ! _


	5. Outside the Village

Next morning at dawn, Ensui and Hitomi left the village. He had decided that this long trip would be an additional learning material for her, that it would do her good, and she agreed. She longed to discover the world a superior entity had put her into, longed to understand every implication of this world's inhabitants, from the mightiest ninja to the most peaceful of civilians. Knowledge was power.

It was still weird to her to be allowed to go through Konoha's huge doors. She was seeing them for the first time — she had never been allowed to come near them because of the number of shinobi nearby, between those who lived there and those who worked around. Shikamaru had described them to her, and Chōjin had drawn them for her. Hitomi would have never guessed such a clumsy boy — he hadn't yet, after all, been honed by the Academy and a gifted, attentive master — could have this kind of skill. The doors were even grander than his drawing and even more beautiful in the flesh, even though she had to grit her teeth not to sob in pain while looking at them.

It was an agreeable autumn day. The tree leaves were still rarely tinted with the yellow, orange and red that announced their fall. One could still smell in the air the flowers that grew in the surrounding woods' clearings. So close to the village, no one would have dared to trouble the tranquility of this place — it would seem like a declaration of war, and one had to lack wisdom and common sense to try and threaten Konoha.

"Why are you taking care of me, Ensui-san? Yesterday, you hinted that you knew about my... problem."

Even though her mother wasn't here to judge her behaviour, Hitomi was adamant on keeping being polite to the man who had taken her in without hoping for any reward in the end. It required immense loyalty to the clan, to put his career as a ninja on hold for two whole years. Hitomi wasn't sure she would have been able to do that, should roles be switched, and yet she loved her clan.

"You have a condition that is called meridian hypersensitivity. That's what's written in your medical files — yes, as a shishou, I have been allowed to consult it."

"Are you my shishou?"

"Er... That's what we had to tell to the Third for him to let you go before graduating. You are not obligated to see me like that, but I'm sure you would be a great student."

Hitomi thought about it for a second. She was struggling to keep thinking about the future, when the canon events would begin for good. She had to have an international reputation by then. Being a student of the Konoha's Strangling Shadow sounded like an excellent reputation headstart, right? The kind you had to think twice about before attacking.

"Ensui-shishou it is, then. But will that prevent me from having a sensei, after the Academy?"

"Only if they can't divide by three the number of students that make it through the last year. If they can't, I will take you as my apprentice until you are promoted Jōnin. But if you do have a sensei... You will be able to take another shishou or come back to me once you are a Chūnin."

"It looks like you're sure about that. How can you be so certain I will make it through the Academy, and afterwards, be promoted?"

His first answer was to shrug and look away, but since she was staring at him with an expectant look, he elaborated a little bit:

"You're a Nara, and you're the daughter of two excellent ninjas. Plus, according to your uncle, you're also a genius, and he's compared you to his son. Trust me, that is something. I've been able to look through his files as well. If this boy wasn't his father's worthy son, he would already be in the Academy, and First Rookie."

Hitomi laughed at that. She knew that, even in the Academy, Shikamaru would do his best to be an average student. The results wouldn't be worth the results, to him. He would rather not attract the professors' attention on him and progress in the shadows. Hitomi was a whole different story. After all, she was a girl, and things always were a bit more difficult for kunoichi in this world. They had to prove themselves worthy, all the time, and the little girl planned to do just that. She wanted to be taken seriously, and for that, she would have to work hard.

"Back to your condition... I have the exact same problem. The disease runs in the family, you see. When I was born, the doctors diagnosed it right away — Princess Tsunade was an apprentice in the Hospital back then, while being trained by the Third. Everybody thought I would never become a ninja, or that I would have to go through difficult, parallel ways to manage it. And then a clan member went to see my parents and took me away, exactly like I did with you. When I came back to the village, I was able to tone down my hypersensitivity until it was just a slight buzz in my meridians. I was able to turn the disease into a weapon. And you will do the same."

Hitomi nodded, her eyes full of respect. If she was able to do that... If she was able to go to the Academy, to become a proper ninja... She would owe him everything. Even then, while they were alone and Ensui wasn't even manipulating his chakra, she could feel it against her skin, the indolent waves grazing her meridians' vital spots. Going through the village's streets, beyond the Nara territory she had never been out of, had been sheer torture.

"And besides the capacity of toning down other people's chakras, is there something else you want to teach me, shishou?"

"In order to decide that, I will have to watch you closely. Once I'll have measured what you're really good at... Well, let's say you would like my specialities."

She nodded, silently urging him to continue, her big red eyes full of a greed he would recognise among thousands. The kid was thirsty for knowledge, thirsty as if she was wandering in the middle of the desert and he had unlimited supplies of water at hand.

"First, there are the clan techniques. Since you are half-Yūhi, you should have a fine amount of chakra, but you are still a bit young to learn more than our basic move. Also, I am a specialist in ground control: I will teach you, if you're talented in that, how to install traps and such. I'm also very good with everything that explodes, smokes, burns and corrods. It's basic chemistry, but I can tell you that Suna's puppeteers are green of jealousy when they see some of my babies. Finally, and that will only become real if you're a very special kid, you'll learn fūinjutsu basics with me. Have you heard of it? It's..."

"The art of sealing. Oh, Kami! I want to learn everything! When can we start?"

For the first time since the day before, he burst out laughing, throwing back his head to let go of his hilarity. The sound was so deep it seemed to come from Earth's depths, hoarse and soft like an old melody.

"Oh, kid, you're adorable. We will see if you are still this enthusiast this afternoon, once we start training. You might end up hating me, but it will be worth it."

They kept talking about banalities. Hitomi was dying with impatience, which made her gait slightly springy. Ensui, of course, had noted her change of attitude and he was delighted about the fact his clan leader hadn't lied while describing the child. He had guessed some of her talents while playing shōgi with her, but the more they talked, the more certain he was that she was exactly the kind of student he needed. Of course, the Third had made a face when he had learned that Ensui planned to take in an apprentice, but the old man's opinion was worthless to his eyes now; he had lost the Nara's respect when he hadn't been able to keep Danzō in line, when he hadn't executed him after learning of his treason.

Shortly after noon, they arrived in an inn that offered food to travellers who didn't necessarily want to stay the night. After checking rapidly with his meridians that there was no ninja around, Ensui pushed slightly his new apprentice forward, urging her to go inside. The inn was large, as they often were so close to the village. In a few days, they would probably not find any roof to sleep under at all. He would take advantage of that and show Hitomi how to find a shelter, food and water, wherever she was. Nobody would say Ensui Nara hadn't done a good job. This kid was about to kick arses in the Academy, or he would swallow all of his eyeliner.

The meal was good and light, like Hitomi liked them. Since her mother always trained her physically during the afternoon, they had taken to eat lightly beforehand, and to enjoy a much heavier meal once evening came. It allowed her not to be too sick if she went beyond her limits and had to throw up, but still be able to gain strength for the next day.

After Ensui had payed, they went out of the inn and traveled for about a mile before the veteran signaled for the child to stop. They were reaching a large clearing, with a rotting old stump in the middle. Flowers sprinkled the grass, little touches of white, pink and yellow in a ocean of green. It was the kind of place Hitomi loved, a little bit like the Deerwoods.

"Okay, it's time to start. First, you will show me how good you are with writing and reading. I will also work on those subjects with you, I don't want your mother to kill me. Take one of the books you took with you and start reading."

Hitomi obediently got started, taking out of her bag a thick book about strategy. It was basic, according to Shikaku, but she had to start somewhere. She started reading a paragraph about grounds soaked with rainwater, stumbling on a few complex kanji and stocking the informations in her Library, as usual. Once or twice, Ensui corrected her on her pronounciation or the significance of a particularly technical term.

"You're doing well. And this book... An excellent choice for beginners. Shikaku-sama?"

She nodded.

"All right, let's get to writing. Take your notebook and your furnitures and settle like you can, I will dictate..."

He took the book and opened it at a random page, beginning to describe different uses of hallucinogenic powder. Oh, Hitomi could picture herself making some devilish things with that. A small smile on her lips, she traced the strokes exactly like she had been taught, but she had to keep a few spaces blank, because she had never heard of those words before.

Then, Ensui quizzed her about the country's history. Rather than simply asking questions, he participated in the discussion, adding precious bits of information she hadn't learned yet. An hour later, after tackling in first aid, a bit more strategy and some litterature notions, she was looking at him with stars in her eyes. He noticed it, of course, but didn't comment. It felt good, to be looked at like that by a child. He understood now why Shikaku cherished the very ground his son walked on, if he was like Hitomi.

The physical part of his examination was what Hitomi had most waited for, her impatience tingled with anxiety. Without having to be guided by Ensui, she started her greetings to the sun routine, like she had learned two years ago with her mother. Sometimes, Ensui asked her if he could help her by manually adjusting her position, trying to test her suppleness limits, and she accepted every time, delighted that he had asked for her authorization. She remembered that, in her previous life, most people didn't bother.

Once her routine was over, he drew a target on a tree and ordered her to throw a few shuriken and kunai as close to the center as she could. Hitomi wasn't a prodigy like Itachi in this field of expertise, but she was getting by, having trained a lot. However, she didn't manage to throw a single projectile at the center of the target. She needed a bit of mental support from Ensui at the end of the day, so that she wouldn't brood over this failure.

"I guess your mother hasn't started teaching you katas yet. They are taijutsu's basics. I will take care of that, too. First, I would like to test your strength, speed and stamina. Start doing press-ups, as many as you can."

Hitomi fell into position obediently and got started. She didn't really like this kind of exercise, they seemed boring to her, but she had found a trick; she recounted in her mind a text picked at random in her Library. This habit had another advantage, it prevented her from paying attention to her body; she forgot about pain, the little twinges of her tired muscles, and her aching joints, and systematically surpassed herself.

Yes, she surpassed herself, so much that when the sun disappeared entirely behind the horizon, she couldn't make a single step. Ensui had to carry her to the inn where they would spend the night, but he had a satisfied expression on his face. During the time it took him to get the key and climb the stairs, the little girl had fallen asleep in his arms. A tingle of affection in his chest, he decided to let the child have the bed and tucked her in as if she were his own daughter before settling on the floor.

She had earned it.

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_Hey there! Hope you like it! We both (the author and the translator) are delighted with the number of favs, follows and reviews this has gotten so far! It's a very ambitious project and I'm still so hyped about it! Please don't hesitate to leave a few words if you liked this chapter, the author will personnally answer to your reviews since she speaks english as well. See you next sunday! _


	6. Training Begins

The next day, just as he had promised, Ensui started to teach Hitomi. When she muttered something about her sore muscles after waking up, he threw her a sympathetic look, but informed her that unfortunately she would have to go through that. However, since he didn't plan on training her physically before the afternoon — he had to admit that Kurenai had had a very good idea when she had separated her days like that — he made her a heating pad with the leftovers of what he had made tea with and an empty goatskin, showing her how to put it on the parts of her body that hurt the most.

He settled a travel shōgi set on the little coffee table in their room, and started teaching her a strategy lesson, illustrating his words with the pieces. It was very interesting, and a very new way of teaching that Hitomi had never had with her mother, since she wasn't so fond of the game. While studying, the little girl managed to snag a few moves from the man that she was sure Shikamaru didn't know. She couldn't wait to show them to her cousin.

Then, he started initiating her to chemistry. Hitomi had a bit of knowledge about that, which she had gained during her first life, but she obviously couldn't tell him about it, so she faked a very quick understanding of the subject and asked the good questions, making elaborated guesses.

"If everything goes well," Ensui promised, "I will let you try to make a little explosion of your own this week. It's the basics of combat chemistry, and very useful to control the battleground, whether you're alone, part of a team or in a bigger fight. This kind of knowledge wins wars. Traditionally, you can only teach it to people from Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi clans, since those three clans are very versed in this kind of subject. And even among clan members, few ninjas master combat chemistry, because they tend to fancy more common ninja arts. Since you are a wonderful little apprentice, I will personally ensure you will not. Understood?"

"Understood!"

The little girl's instruction kept going like that all morning. Ensui was delighted and didn't manage to hide it that well. He wanted to go and hug his clan leader, thanking him for putting such a gem between his capable hands. The kid seemed made to absorb all of his knowledge. He could see how much pleasure she took from learning in her big red eyes, alongside with curiosity and eagerness to practise, which made him reminiscent of his younger years.

He would, that was absolutely certain, continue teaching her things while she would be in the Academy, continue honing her mental and physical skills, to make her the beautiful and terrific kunoichi she would become — she would probably look like her mother, maybe with Nara clan's haughty figures. The day she would surpass him, he would be immensely proud — although he already was, seeing her absorb all of those chemistry notions that gave other kids so much trouble. He had never taken an apprentice before, but some of his friends had taken a few, and inebriated Jōnins talked a lot.

After a light meal, the man and the child paid and left their room, which was carefully locked. Hitomi was still a bit stiff and slightly limped, but she knew she would be in a lot more pain had she not have the heating pad Ensui had made for her. She had never thought of that while training with her mother, but she knew she would make a habit out of using it.

"We will stay in this inn for a few days, until your body is accustomed to training. You'll be able to walk without too much trouble then. After that, we will hit the road again. We'll walk through mornings while I teach you theory lessons, and will stop on afternoons for physical training. You'll practice reading and writing before bed every night."

"Where will we go?" Hitomi asked.

"Probably Suna. I want to show you some of my very special creations, and I need materials one can only find there."

A bit of energy came back to Hitomi, soothing her sore muscles. She felt almost feverish, hands trembling and heart beating fast with anticipation. She couldn't wait to learn all he had promised to teach her. Although she hadn't known this man for a long time, she had felt honoured the day before when she had seen the pride in his eyes. She had never thought about what would happen if she caught the eye of a trained ninja before. She thought she would be part of a three-persons team, like everyone else, and have to manage by her own until then. It was pure, insolent luck for her to have been put into Ensui's hands.

As soon as they arrived to the previous day's clearing, serious stuff began. First of all, Ensui made Hitomi run for about twenty minutes, for her muscles to warm up and get ready for what would come next. He had decided that the child needed to learn how to fight first. He was frightening, what with being a shinobi that no one would attack without thinking first, but everything could happen and Hitomi had to have a few weapons on hand should a unfortunate situation arise.

Katas, basics martial arts moves, were taught at the Academy from the third year onwards, Hitomi knew that. She had sometimes watched her mother while she was performing them, and she had thought it looked incredibly easy. How wrong she had been! While she executed the first pose under Ensui's instructions, she tripped and fell, face first, in the soft grass. She rose with a frustrated grunt and started again from the beginning, exactly like her shishou had told her to do if she made a mistake.

It took her more than an hour to master the opening move, and her movements didn't have Ensui's flexibility, far from it. Her hands and feet, especially, were sometimes still clumsy, and she knew that her balance was strained when she changed her standing foot. It was frustrating, but she consoled herself with her body's sensations, that answered her more complex instructions without showing any signs of fatigue. She had never had such a healthy body. It was marvelous.

Katas couldn't be used in a fight — they were too predictable, too common. But they were the basics of every shinobi's style, and ninjas fought using their favourite katas, modified and adapted to suit better to a true fight. Ensui explained all this in a soft voice while correcting her fighting stance, careful about not pressing her skin too much. He knew that it would be too painful for her meridians.

"It's time to teach you how to tone down your hypersensitivity. There is no magic trick, unfortunately: you will have to meditate until you create a hiding place where you can store every information your meridians give to you, and then you'll find the perfect dosage for them to filter through and give you information about your opponents. For example, it's impossible for a ninja of my level or below to take me by surprise, because I always feel their chakra, but being in a crowd of shinobi doesn't make me feel like I'm about to burst into flames. Do you understand the difference?"

Hitomi sensibly nodded. She understood the concept better than he thought she would. The exercise felt very similar to what she had to done to create her Library, and what she still had to do every night to neatly organise her new memories and her new knowledge.

"According to her mother, you already meditate once a day. Show me how you do it."

Immediately, the little girl fell into seiza position, Konoha's oldest families' traditional sitting stance. She knew that in the Previous World, this position was very famous in Japan, but she had never sat like that before landing in this world... and she had mastered it thanks to Shikaku. She put her hands on her knees, her back straight, and closed her eyes. She found herself at the border of her Library. It was difficult; she could feel knowledge's call like a slow, soft song in her mind. It took all of her will to stay at the edge, where she could still hear Ensui clearly.

"Good. Now, you have to imagine a kind of cage, or box, and hang it somewhere in your mind. Take your time; you'll want it to be suited to your tastes, because you will see it a lot, and this disease is an asset: you will treat it with respect, even though you have to imprison it.

Hitomi obeyed her shishou, taking some time to consider her options. She wanted to make this cage a part of her Library. As soon as she walked in the round space, around which the books were organised — some kind of light source that reached high, high in her mind's sky —, her breathing changed, more relaxed and deep. A satisfied expression on his face, Ensui rested his back on a tree trunk and waited.

It took the child a few tries to know what she wanted to do, but once the idea was found, it seemed perfect. With a mental caress, she put in the center of the perfectly round space a little white pillar, until it reached the height of her spiritual self. She made a crystal cage on it, which captured the light and diffracted it all around in a rainbow. She even engraved some of her favourite flowers and animals in the crystal. It took her an hour to reach the idea she had been so fond of.

She tried sending her sensitivity's informations into the crystal sphere. It was difficult, because she didn't know when she actually transferred impressions or memories of those impressions. The limit between these two concepts was extremely thin and difficult to grasp, even after a few tries.

Besides the complexity of her project, Hitomi started to feel a kind of fatigue she had never experienced before. Her thoughts sometimes lacked precision; she felt like her breath caught in her chest, and the distant feeling that her limbs were beginning to shake. She went on still, kept trying, keeping inside the urge to scream in frustration everytime a book, and thus a memory, ended up in the crystal cage, ignoring the alarms her body was starting to raise.

"Hitomi? Hitomi!"

She went back to herself in a jump, her pupils extremely contracted in her eyes. Ensui's hands had grasped her shoulders, hard — she realized he used that strength to hold her, since her legs were numb and forceless. She was shaking in the mild evening air, a cold feeling slowly creeping its way through her. Wherever she looked, she felt dizzy.

"Wh-what's happening to me?" she whined in a soft voice.

"You used too much chakra... I'm sorry. I didn't assume you would use any. You aren't even supposed to know how."

She answered with an inarticulated moan, her shaking getting stronger with every second. Without adding anything, Ensui enveloped her in a cover he had found in his emergency pack, picked up their belongings and put their bags on his back, and then took her in his arms as if she weighted nothing.

"I'm afraid you'll be facing a difficult night. When the worst hits, keep thinking that it will get better in the morning. I promise."

She could hear a frightening guilt in his voice. In an attempt to stop her teeth from gritting against each other, she bit her lips, hard. She didn't want to worry her shishou, but she could see on his hard face that he already was.

Once in the inn room, he placed her between the covers and, with a bit of chakra, warmed up water for another heating pad. His dark gray eyes didn't leave the bed for one second; he wanted to be able to see at once if something went even worse. He remembered the first time he had been in this situation. He had thought he was going to die, but he had survived, with strict instructions never to get to his limits again, except if he had a very good reason to. Unfortunately, for ninjas, there were a lot of very good reasons.

The night was difficult, as he had predicted. An hour later, Hitomi started to feel her meridians burst into flames, a terrible pressure that put her body through agony. She smothered her screams in her pillow, biting it as hard as she could, while Ensui was stroking her hair, promising her nonsense and telling her empty comforting words.

Then came nausea and vomiting, which left her haggard and exhausted. At some point during the night, she felt a dizzying fever that left her dazed, without any of her usual bearings. Hitomi was taking great comfort in her knowledge, and thus this situation was terrifying to her — she spent most of these hours sobbing, deaf to any of Ensui's tentatives to comfort her.

The night was long and difficult, for the master and the student alike. Dawn found them asleep, between the disorganized sheet, him in a strange position, his back bent so his head could rest on the mattress and the rest of his body on the floor. He snored softly, his — for once — loose hair half hiding his face, one hand outstretched as if he wanted to comfort his apprentice once more.

And like he had promised, everything was better the next morning.

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_Thanks for reading this! I'll see you next sunday for another chapter. _


	7. The Caravan

After this incident, Hitomi's meridian training was suspended, in order for her to recover an adequate chakra core. Children as young as her, had explained Ensui, weren't supposed to be able to manipulate chakra, and certainly not supposed to exhaust themselves while doing so. He listened intently when she explained how her Library worked, then sighed, shaking his head and muttering something about Yamanakas accusing him of offering clan secrets to a kid. As if she would ever be stupid enough to share her secrets with anybody from a virtually telepathic clan.

It was time for Hitomi to try her first chemical experiments. After a few tries, supervised by her master, she managed to produce a sizeable explosions, which shook the ground and caused dozens of birds to fly away in a flutter of wings and panicked squawks. At night, she was allowed to browse through Ensui's notebook, where he stored every formula and processes for his creations. The notebook was locked and could only be opened by his chakra, a thing that Hitomi found absolutely fascinating.

She didn't understand everything on these pages, far from it, but she still had a lot to learn in the field. Delayed explosions, combinations, projections... All the possibilities were making her head spin. She was however able to recount every formula and every procedure by heart and could recall the most precise details such as typos or every bent corner. Ensui made sure of it before closing the notebook forever.

"You won't always have me around," he said, "when you will want to make a smoke bomb or soporific grenade. So now you'll have everything you need in your head and will only have to worry about finding the components."

A week later, they left the inn behind them and went back on the road. Although they slowly made their way towards Suna's desert, it was getting colder and colder. The first night they had to spend outside was particularly difficult for Hitomi, who wasn't used at all to this kind of temperature. Back in Konoha, the cold was never so bitter, except maybe in the middle of winter.

"The first thing you need to learn, it's how to hunt. You can't expect food to appear out of nowhere directly into your mouth. Take your shuriken and kunai and follow me."

Hitomi didn't really have a problem with hunting, but preparing the preys for cooking was complicated. The little girl couldn't stop her hands from shaking when she had to skin or gut a rabbit. She had to clean dozens of prey to be able to do it without thinking. Every life she took, even an animal's, was making her heart a bit harder.

And if she had to be honest, she really needed it. Planning violence and fights in the midst of her Library was one thing, but having to draw blood in a real situation, having to see pain and fear on the face of an opponent who could be a child just like her was something else altogether.

When she hesitated, Ensui was merciless. He forced her to attack over and over again, forced her to be ruthless, even though she couldn't hurt him; he wanted to see the _intent_. And at night, inside the caves he always found to shelter them from occasional rain, he held her while she cried and waited for her to fall asleep, waking her from all of her nightmares.

After a few months, she had completely mastered her training's katas. To celebrate, he gifted her with an outfit which really suited a ninja, made of dark green and reinforced fabric. He told her how to attach a small purse which contained all of her throwing weapons on her belt.

He honed her, like one honed a weapon, and Hitomi liked the idea. He was sometimes stern with her, wasn't afraid to push her until she hit her limits, and every morning she woke stronger, harder, all the more ready to face with her opponents that would inevitably come her way. If they were bold enough to do evil things, they couldn't expect her to be easy on them.

Almost five months later, they reached the desert's boundaries. They had been slowed down by Hitomi's civilian pace. There, they joined a caravan, which was equipped for such a trip and used to travel in sand immensities. These people were merchants from everywhere, not only Elementary Countries. To protect themselves from occasional thief attacks, they had hired a ninja team from Suna. They weren't the Children of Sand, who were far too young, but shinobi Hitomi had never heard of; two Genin, one Chūnin and one Jōnin as team leader. They obviously had worked together for a long time — she could deduce that by watching them communicate without speaking sometimes and from the way they automatically adjusted their positions to their teammates'.

"Shishou?"

"Hm?"

"I think the Chūnin is a puppeteer."

"Please, don't tell me you're about to ask him too many questions. We can't afford a diplomatic incident."

With a pout, the little girl went to settle behind one of the tarpaulins that protected the goods. While it took a ninja only a few days to reach Suna from Konoha, it took a lot more time for civilians, especially in this kind of procession that only moved forwards during early mornings and late afternoons. That way they avoided the warmest and coldest hours of the days. Ensui took advantage of the time lost unmoving to train Hitomi, improving her skills in order for her to become a better version of herself.

One day, while she was meditating under Ensui's careful eyes, she felt something unlock in her mind. It felt almost physical, like the sound of a branch that had been bent for a long time and had finally given way under pressure. And this time, a book didn't land in the crystal cage, but a ray of light, as long as a hair ribbon, undulating softly under an invisible wind.

Hitomi got out of her trance immediately and landed on all fours, catching her breath. For the first time, Ensui's presence, along with Suna's shinobi's, had toned down a bit. Just a little bit, not enough for her not to be bothered by them for long, but it was undeniable progress. Her face glowing of happiness, she raised her head and threw her master a smile so wide it dug small joyful marks at the corner of her eyes and dimples in her cheeks.

"Shishou, I think I'm getting the hang of this!"

"Well done, kid. You've managed the hardest part. I'm proud of you."

Hitomi froze for a second. Her eye's deep, wine-rich red met Ensui's dark gray. After a few moments, she understood what he offered behind those words, the dignity, the rectitude and hopes he wore without knowing how to express them. She wondered, deep down, if she deserved it; she knew she was a good manipulator, a good liar, and could manage the softest smile while lying through her teeth. But she hadn't done any of this to her mentor. She had just wanted to meet his expectations.

The progress she had made didn't last forever, unfortunately. Sometime during the night, the ray of light broke out of its cage and vanished in a dry slam, waking Hitomi with a jump. Ensui was standing guard, as if he knew this would happen. After all, he had been through this, too. She was exhausted — apparently she would always require chakra to isolate her meridians' sensations — but knew she couldn't get back to sleep. Carefully wrapped in her blanket, she went to sit near her master, who was bent over a roll of parchment.

"Shishou?"

He answered the unasked question, slightly scooting on his futon, so she could sit between his legs and be able to read at the same time as him. Fascinated, Hitomi watched the elegant black ink strokes on the paper, recognising a seal. It was absolutely gorgeous, so complex it would make the most gifted calligrapher grow pale, and her palms itched from wanting to reproduce this pattern.

"When we left Konoha, I told her I would teach you fūinjutsu, or sealing arts. Do you remember? I'm not a master like the Sannin or the Fourth Hokage, but I can manage, and it's a very valued skill among Jōnins from every village. With this memory of yours, you will be a prodigy in this subject, Hitomi-chan. Since you look like you're not going back to sleep, we can start now, if you want to."

Her eyes full of stars, the little girl nodded, and the movement was so enthusiast it hurt her neck a little bit. She didn't care. Since Ensui had told her about it on the first day, the idea of fūinjutsu obsessed her. Although she didn't know much about it, she knew that once it was mastered the possibilities were countless. The idea of having such an asset satisfied something dark, deeply buried in her.

In a low voice, as to not disturb the other travellers, Ensui began to explain the basics of fūinjutsu. The inner and outer circles of a seal were made of kanji, often undetectable since they had to be written without stopping and raising the paintbrush. The only way to make a seal work was to have those two circles completely closed. The kanji used to trace those circles, once deciphered, explained how the seal worked and what it did. Then, to link those circles, one had to draw between two and a hundred ornaments, and the power of the seal was determined by their number and complexity. Those ornaments had to be separated by an equal distance, or else the seal would work in an unpredictable way, often dangerously so. Finally, between the ornaments, you had to add signs that looked a lot like simplified kanji, and were used to determine the seal's behaviour: how much chakra you needed to activate it, the delay if the seal needed one, the range... The possibilities were infinite.

For example, concerning stocking seals, you had to trace the circles by repeating over and over again "I stock and release at will", then trace enough ornaments for the volume you wanted to store. Then, you had to add precisions about the place you wanted to use chakra for stocking and releasing (two manipulations, and thus two different locations). Things would get harder if you wanted the seal to have a precise spot for each item, which was useful if you didn't want to re-stock everything in the roll afterwards if you just needed one item.

Fūinjutsu was rarely an innate talent, and even if you had this chance, you needed to work on repetition and precision to master the slightest seal. You also needed a special ink, infused with chakra, which was only made by the Fire Temple's monks in the Fire Country. Seals were a potential catastrophe, and the risk was phenomenal if you messed things up. Fortunately, you had to soak them with chakra to use them, no matter how complicated they were. An apprentice could then train as much as they wanted before taking the slightest risk.

Hitomi was fascinated. Her dominant hand, the left one, was almost shaking with impatience. All of her body longed for the still unknown sensations of the brush on paper and ink's overpowering smell, as if it had an unconscious and crucial power she wasn't allowed to browse through yet. If he noticed her urge to try it, Ensui didn't say anything. Was he fascinated by the seal he was examining too? Did he feel like he instinctively understood what was on the paper and the irrepressible need to throw himself in this art? If so, he didn't speak of it.

The sun was getting up when he finished explaining. He didn't need to tell Hitomi to rise; she was already down the carriage they had spent the night in to take shelter from the wind and the sand. With slow, mastered movements, a hundred times more elegant than they had been the year before, she started greeting the sun, her master by her side, under the amused eyes of the few awake travellers. They were used to this eccentricity by then. On afternoons, when they couldn't travel because of the heat, they sat in a circle around her while she fought Chiki, one of the two Genin of the escort team. He had accepted to be her sparring partner, allowing her to practice her katas and to test her abilities against an opponent closer to her size. Occasionally, she sparred against Ensui or Takano, the Jōnin team leader, and it was as futile as trying to break a mountain with a blade of grass. Despite that, she was learning, whoever her opponent was. Sometimes, she could see the foreign ninjas and even some civilians, when she talked with them, slightly draw dight under her curious, hungry eyes. As if they were scared that she would steal their souls' secrets. She wasn't a Yamanaka, though, but only the most open minded of Suna ninjas understood Konoha's clans subtleties.

Hitomi's skill in fighting was becoming more than acceptable for her age. She was throwing all she had in her training, neither counting hours nor sore muscles. Ensui had had to interrupt her more than once before she exhausted herself — she tended to ignore her limits, as she had proved occasionally to her worried master. This kind of instinct was very valuable during a mission, when one had to fulfill their duties and protect their comrades, but during training, it was just taking unnecessary risks.

During the following days, she kept trying to isolate her meridians' sensations. She could manage better and better, but they always ended up escaping from their cage. When she described the place where she locked them in to Ensui, he told her that it wasn't the problem, and that the only way to get to the point where her perceptions wouldn't bother her anymore and would be locked at will was to practice time and time again. The same went for the quantity of blocked sensations. Thanks to his constant support, and because he never made her focus on one subject alone, she was able to keep her spirits high.

And it paid. Hitomi could always see a peaceful satisfaction in her master's eyes, and it honoured her more than words could tell. When he wasn't training her or teaching her something, they talked a lot about their personal lives. He told her about missions he had fulfilled with her father, described the sensei they had once shared. Out of respect for her, he never sweetened his stories: he knew that, just like Shikamaru, she was precociously mature because of her intellect. She never proved him wrong. She would have put her life between Ensui's hands without the slightest hesitation, but her reincarnation's secret had to be kept just that, a secret, for her own safety.

Fortunately, having a genius of his own to raise and accustomed to their peculiar behaviour, Shikaku had never shown any suspicion towards her. When Kurenai had told him about her precociousness, he had taken her to test her IQ and other obscure parameters that put the same label on her as her favourite cousin. He didn't suspect anything, merely thanked her with an amused glint in his eyes when she motivated Shikamaru to do more than the bare minimum.

How was her cousin, in Konoha? She missed him, but at least he had people around him, between Yamanakas, Akimichis and his own clan. Plenty of material for friends. Sometimes, Hitomi felt a bit lonely and pathetically jealous of the young boy, since she only had Ensui as a friend and confidant. But he was an adult, and she didn't know him literally since his birth as she did Shikamaru. There was simply a level of closeness they could never share until a very long time, and she missed it now that her cousin wasn't around her to provide it to her.

The next day, when they had only left their noon break point since less than an hour, they caught sight of Suna. It took them the rest of the afternoon to arrive at the city's entry and another hour to obtain the right to get in. Hitomi had wisely decided to stay discreet and to observe. Fortunately, she had made enough progress with her perception to tone it down for several days so it would be bearable, even in the midst of a Hidden Village. Curious and eager, she needed all of her will to stay behind Ensui and wait for him to allow her to explore the city.

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	8. Gaara

When Hitomi obtained, at last, her master's permission to explore the city, she had to face the hard truth. Although she had constructed a dozen different plans concerning what she would do if she ended up in Suna, she didn't have the slightest idea where to begin. When she got out of the hotel Ensui had booked a suite in for the whole month, she realized she was standing out from the crowd with her obvious traveller's clothes. A carefully studied air of innocence on her face, she wandered in the small side streets, away from the main arteries of the city, until she found what she was looking for.

There were children clothes on a string, clothes looking exactly like the local adults'. Leaving a purse full of little coins in exchange, she purloined the outfit and got into relative security of another side street to get changed, her original clothes hanging in a bundle on her back. Of course, she could have just bought what she needed, but wasn't she supposed to become a ninja?

It was then time for her to get her main plan started. She had to find the town's aspiring ninjas first, which was quite easy: they all hung out near the Suna Academy, like children did back in Konoha. She looked among then but didn't find the red hair she was looking for. Some of the boys who were playing ball tried to get her to join one of their team but she declined with a laugh, not keen on losing a whole afternoon chasing a leather ball. She didn't see anything fun in that, thank you very much.

She found him away from the other, his own ball laying flat at his feet. He looked so sad, so small, and the adult heart hidden inside Hitomi broke. She had counted carefully while on the road: at four years old, Gaara was lonely and sad, but nobody was trying to kill him yet and he hadn't gave in to his murderous rage.

"Hi!" she chirped. "Can I sit with you?"

He jumped so hard when he heard her voice that she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Obviously, Ensui's lessons were working, if she was able to take anyone by surprise.

"You... You want to sit with me?"

Hitomi's heart broke again, but she kept her emotions firmly hidden inside. They didn't have their place here. Approaching with a few tiny steps, she let the sweetest smile grace her lips. She had a lot of them to spare.

"The other children are too loud for me. You look nice and... calmer, so I thought you would be a better choice."

And just like that, it was decided. The simplicity of her plan's first step shocked Hitomi a little bit, but it made sense: Gaara was a little boy and he was desperate for a little bit of affection; he hadn't learned mistrust yet. For a moment, she felt guilty to use his weaknesses like that, but she drove this annoying feeling away. She knew it was for the best.

"So you can control sand then?" she asked an hour and a half later. "Do you think you could make a few sculptures for me?"

"Aren't you... scared?"

She shrugged and answered casually,

"I live in a compound where ninjas control shadows. It's way scarier than sand, believe me! Can you make a dromedary for me? I've always wanted to see one."

The little boy obeyed, his cheeks reddening, and Hitomi clapped, looking absolutely delighted. It was easy to pretend to be a caring child in this kind of situation and Ensui would have raised an eyebrow and laughed his arse off if he'd saw her fall so easily in a parody of herself. But it was what Gaara needed, after all.

Soon — too soon — the sun started to set, making the sand glow with a thousand warm colours. Suna really was a beautiful city, even though one could see that isolation had been hard on its development compared to Konoha. In a swift move, Hitomi reached Gaara's hand to take him with her, but the sand reacted too quickly for her to do anything besides that, scratching harshly her hand. Surprised, she yelped in pain and lowered her eyes to the red, angry marks where the skin was raw.

"Oh... Oh no... I'm sorry!"

Gaara looked beside himself. His hands were shaking and his eyes shone with unshed tears. Hitomi's heart broke when she saw him like that. With her undamaged hand, she patted his arm, making sure not to take him by surprise this time.

"It's okay. Ensui-shishou will heal this really fast, you'll see."

"But I hurt you!"

"So what?" she shrugged. "You didn't do it on purpose. My shishou has done far worse while training me and yet I know he likes me a lot. I don't hate you, Gaara-kun."

"Gaara... Just Gaara. You're sure you're okay? Maybe we should go to the hospital?"

Frowning slightly, Hitomi looked at her hand again. On some spots where the wound was deeper, some grains of sand were stuck under the skin. She shook her head, trying to calm her playmate down.

"No, I'm okay, I swear. If you want, you can come with me to see shishou. He'll heal me and you'll be able to see I'm fine. Okay?"

This was absolutely not planned, but things were going smoothly around this new development. This time, she was careful not to scare Gaara, and her intact hand found its place in his. She answered his surprise — he probably wasn't touched a lot by his peers — with a bright, encouraging smile, and led him to the hotel she stayed in. She used her formidable memory to find her way back.

Ensui wasn't glad to hear she had been hurt, and threw Gaara a nasty look. At once, seeing the little boy shrivel with tears in his eyes, Hitomi intervened and stepped between him and her master, raising her chin proudly as if to defy him.

"It's not Gaara's fault. Nobody taught him how to control his power. He's my friend and I will not let you scare him, shishou."

Her heart broke a bit more when she heard the small, shocked sound Gaara made when he drew a sharp breath behind her. She knew that nobody had ever told him this kind of things. He only had an uncle who hated him and barely hid it, a pair of terrified brother and sister, and a father who saw him as a tool, nothing more. Nobody had ever stood before him to protect him and claim a precious link with him. That only determined her further. Thinning her lips, she squared her shoulders a bit more, staring at Ensui with every rectitude she could manage, shutting up the little voice that told her she was no better, she was manipulating the child for her own plans.

"I was not about to hurt him," Ensui sighed.

As Gaara shrunk further against Hitomi's silhouette, hiding behind her, the Jōnin kneeled to shrink his size to the same as the two children, trying to reduce the danger he represented. It was always tricky for him, since he projected a cold, calm threat all the time. He didn't even get why Hitomi suddenly wanted him to be careful with that; she had always accepted him as he was. He understood a bit more when he lowered his eyes to the kid hiding behind her, observing the way she protected him.

He was important.

Ensui didn't know how he was important, and wasn't sure she would tell him. He had known all along that his little protégée never did anything at random: every choice she made was carefully controlled. It was quite common among geniuses, and Nara clan was famous for this, so Ensui had learned to accept that he was surrounded with manipulators and was one himself. With Hitomi, he even let her drag him around, since she did what he wanted her to do in exchange. She was a good enough student to be allowed to have plans of her own.

"Look, Gaara, right? I know that sometimes children hurt themselves while playing. I'm not mad at you, and seeing how Hitomi protects you, I'm sure she's not either. Can you please take off the sand from her wound so I can close it?"

He could have done it himself, of course, but he thought it was important for the kid to participate to his error's correction. He didn't have much experience with children — could he count training Hitomi as experience? — but it felt like good practise. When the wound was cleaned, he took his apprentice's hurt hand between his, softly and cautiously, and erased her scratch with a shard of chakra. She winced a little bit.

"So, did you two spend part of your day together? Tell me all about it. Oh and Hitomi, I want to know why you aren't wearing the same clothes as you were this morning."

The child shrugged, trying her best to look guilty and utterly failing. He knew her better than that and he knew that everything she did, she did with a purpose. She probably wouldn't explain everything here, with the little boy following all of her movements like a duckling with its mother, but he trusted his apprentice and had learned patience those last few months. She would eventually confide in him.

"I just wanted to walk around without attracting attention, so I took a child's outfit which was left without surveillance. But I didn't steal it! I left some money."

Hitomi blushed under her shishou's inquisitive look, graceful enough to duck her head and look embarrassed. Gaara was shaking his head, incredulous, as if he couldn't believe how bold she had been.

"And then I saw Gaara and he was alone... and I decided to go and talk to him. He has really awesome powers! He can make the sand do whatever he wants and he showed me plants and animals you can't find in Konoha."

"And isn't your friend supposed to be elsewhere? It's getting a bit late, you know."

For the first time since they had arrived, Gaara spoke.

"I can go home whenever I want."

He didn't elaborate on the reasons but Hitomi slightly nodded towards the window, attracting Ensui's attention. She saw his lips thin slightly, which told her he was checking his meridians' sensations, and then his eyes shone with understanding.

"Well then, you can stay, Gaara-kun. I don't know what Hitomi has planned, but I bet it involves..."

"Do you know how to play shōgi, Gaara?"

"Shōgi. I see you have things firmly in your hands, kid. I have to go and pick something up in town, I'll be back in time to order us some food. Are you staying, Gaara-kun?"

The little boy raised his eyes and looked at the adult with hope and adoration.

"Can I?"

As simply as that, it was decided. While Ensui left their hotel room, Hitomi taught shōgi to Gaara and they started playing, game after game, without paying any attention to the time. A bit later, Ensui came back, his arms full of local goods, and Gaara explained carefully what they were eating. It was a bit too spicy for Hitomi's palate, but good nonetheless. The two children kept on playing, being given regular advice by the adult, whom tried to stay impartial. Of course, Hitomi won, more used to the game, but Gaara put up a good fight and had very original strategy ideas.

Eventually, it was time for him to leave. It was getting really late and Hitomi had to go to sleep. She had been allowed a day of entire freedom, but her master wasn't about to let her get lazy during the month they would spend in Suna.

"If you want," she said to Gaara in front of their suite door, "you can come back tomorrow morning. Ensui-shishou has booked a training room on the hotel's ground floor, I will be training for combat and throwing shuriken. And in the afternoon I will have herbology lessons and work on my calligraphy. I would be very happy if you kept me company."

Gaara's smile was so bright and pure that it hurt her a little bit. Carefully, not wanting to awake his sand's protective urges, she reached forward and hugged him lightly, wishing him a good night.

Then, she went back to the suite's small living room where her master was waiting for her, an amused but impatient expression on his face. He apparently had questions to ask.

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	9. Pain

"I believe you have explanations to offer, young lady."

Hitomi sat obediently in the chair facing Ensui's, far from being trumped by his light, playful tone. It was the first time they had a real suite, with its own bathroom, a room each and a living room. Hitomi was certainly not used to this luxury, but knew that any Jōnin could afford it. Ensui had chosen such a place because they were to spend four long weeks in the Hidden Sand. They had never spent more than three days anywhere since the week at the Fire Country inn, at the beginning of their trip.

"First of all... The Kazekage's son? Of all the friends you could have made, you chose the youngest child of the village's ruler?"

She compliantly nodded. Since Ensui didn't seem really angry, she started explaining.

"I heard other children talk about him, and I knew who he was when I met him, but I didn't tell him that. I don't want him to think that I'm nice too him just because he's important."

"But you somehow are, right?"

She shrugged.

"It's not the only reason. We have talked a lot today. He's really nice, as nice as an Akimichi, and yet everybody here hates him and is afraid of him. It's not his fault if Shukaku has a temper..."

"Shukaku? As in One-Tail Shukaku?"

"Yes! I know, I reacted like that too when I learned about it. Gaara explained it to me when I asked where his powers came from. The demon is really unkind to him sometimes, you know... He can't even sleep properly."

"Of all the Elementary Nations children, there really is just you who would... well, what's done is done."

"Exactly what I thought, shishou."

The man didn't answer right away, taking some time to pour a glass of fresh water for his protégée. One could easily be dehydrated in the desert, and public water sources in the village weren't exactly the healthiest. Even though it wasn't his main affinity, he would rather have her drink water created with his chakra rather than from the rusty old pump available down the street.

"I guess letting you be friends with this boy can't hurt... But _please_, don't tell your mother or your uncle I let a foreign jinchūriki get closer than thirty feet from you, if you want your old shishou to stay alive."

"Oh! So I'm allowed to befriend Naruto Uzumaki at the Academy?"

Her isolated life in the Nara territory hadn't prevented her from hearing about the fox demon and its host. She had quickly developed a talent to be at exactly the right time and place to catch gossip.

"Hitomi! You're not even supposed to know that..."

The little girl answered with a sceptical look.

"Honestly, shishou. It's the village's most known secret."

He at least appeared a bit embarrassed, scratching his neck with a small grimace. If she were him, she would feel ashamed as well, since his Jōnin coworkers and the other adults from the village had been unable to keep a secret. Ninjas were the worst gossips ever.

The child and her master talked a bit more, until it was time for her to go to sleep. She awoke with a jump in the middle of night, her meridians saturated with informations and making her feel like her skin was on fire. She had to spend several hours in her Library, facing her crystal cage. Her shishou had been right: her disease kept silent for longer each time, and she was able to ask it for information without having to lock it up again afterwards. It wasn't yet strong enough to last very long, but it would come, she knew that. She needed that.

The next days, the little girl fell into a comfortable routine. On mornings, Gaara brought Ensui and her some breakfast — she had no idea how he found it — based on specialities of the village. A few bites were enough to give her energy for the whole morning. Then, all three of them went down to the training room Ensui had booked, and Hitomi greeted the sun. She taught the movements to Gaara and he joined her a few days later for this peaceful ceremony.

Once she was warmed up, she worked on what Ensui had picked as a subject, often fight training. Ensui had decided she wasn't ready to fight adult opponents seriously, so he metamorphosed one of his clone to a copy of her, with blond hair instead of her usual black. It was strange for Hitomi to punch herself, but terribly efficient: the clone had Ensui's skills in taijutsu and she was virtually impossible to strike with Hitomi's current level. She never managed to make it disappear.

Sometimes, the master asked Gaara to hang sand targets everywhere in the room, and the little boy complied, delighted to be able to participate in his friend's training. It was her job to be ingenious enough to hit the targets. After kunais and shurikens, Ensui was determined to teach her how to manipulate senbons, long needles much harder to use but formidable once poisoned, and way more precise than any other throwing weapon. But first, she had to master kunai.

After a brief break around noon, Hitomi had three hours of freedom to spend with Gaara in town. He showed her his favourite places, those that mattered to him. She stored every memory safely in her Library, and took care of her new friend that looked up to her with admiration. Although she was the one visiting a foreign city, she was ten times more comfortable than him with adults and had her way with them, whether she needed ice cream or two seats at the movies. Neither master nor student talked about it, but she felt like Ensui was constantly making sure they were okay.

Once the clock reached four pm, she came back to the hotel, often alone. Gaara was sad she had to leave, but Ensui had explained to him that Hitomi didn't have any demon inside her as a hidden power, and that she needed to learn secret stuff to protect herself and become stronger. Hitomi thought he was very gifted with special children. First her, then Gaara... She didn't understand why he had never became a sensei. He would have done wonders.

With her master, Hitomi started to learn sealing arts. As he had guessed, she was naturally gifted and understood the art's mechanisms, and the only thing she needed to learn was repetition and master her movements enough to be able to draw the complex strokes. Of course, he didn't let her waste special ink for that, forcing her to train on common furnitures, on meters and meters of paper. After a few days, her wrist was sore and cramped at the strangest moments, and ink refused to come off her fingers, but she accepted this price willingly to engulf herself in the ninja art she wanted to be mistress of someday.

She had been in Suna for ten days when Gaara asked her something she hadn't expected, his big, naive eyes looking at her as if she possessed every universe's mysteries' answers.

"Hitomi-nee, how does it feel when it hurts?"

They had just came back from the cinema, where they had seen the last trending adventure movie. The little girl wondered why her friend was asking such a question now, and then realised that he had probably wondered about it for a long time and didn't dare to ask. It was typically how Gaara worked: he interiorised something for days just because he couldn't formulate a question. She had to work softly on him for days for him to open up a bit, and to express the loneliness that haunted him since his birth.

"It's... It's a bit difficult to explain with mere words. You see, when you're hurt, it's your body saying to your brain that there is danger around and that you need to react and get away from it."

She inhaled deeply, grasping for words for a few minutes, before she continued:

"There are two different kinds of pain: physical and psychological pain. People often believe they are the same but they are wrong. I would rather suffer physically for days and days than suffer psychologically for an hour. Do you understand the difference?"

He nodded, but she could tell he was still struggling with the concepts she had explained. After all, he had never experienced any physical pain, and emotionally he had suffered almost all his life without realising it. Taking his hand to reassure him, she invited him in the suite, which was beginning to take its inhabitants imprint. Ensui didn't bother to store all of his equipment, for example; he knew that Hitomi wouldn't play with it and get hurt.

"I know a way to make you understand physical pain despite your armour, Gaara, but I'm warning you; you won't like this sensation if you decide to go through with this idea."

"But you always say that knowledge is a ninja's true strength..."

"Indeed. I think you should do it, because you have to be ready for this sensation if an enemy manages to harm you one day. If you know about it, you won't be taken aback when or if this day happens, and you will be able to react."

She also thought that he should learn about pain to never become the monster he was in the manga's first part, taking pleasure in other people's suffering and killing mercilessly all those foolish enough to try and prevent him from doing something, but she left that unsaid. She knew that he was capable of empathy, but empathy came from experience. He couldn't be sympathetic to other people's pain if he had never felt any in the first place.

"I... I want to do it," he whispered.

He looked absolutely terrified. Hitomi smiled reassuringly and hugged him tightly, breathing in the smell of sun and sand that always clung to his hair. He was smaller than her, and she was planning on taking advantage of this superior height while she could to deserve the suffix he had taken to attach to her name the last few days.

"You're really brave, Gaara. I'll be with you through all of it, I promise."

Hitomi bent over one of Ensui's chemistry bags under her friend's anxious gaze. He had allowed her to use his products for some tests she had to do for her chemistry lessons. He had asked her, among other things, to create poisons more elaborate than what was available to ninjas in Hidden Villages' weapons stores. Of course, poison specialists were able to create much more potent liquids, but Ensui wanted his apprentice to be able to manage a few things in this particularly vicious subject.

"I guess you've already heard of poison. It's one of Suna's specialties, after all... That's what I'm going to use to cause you pain. Don't worry, it will only hurt for a few minutes and then I will give you the antidote."

The little girl selected a pill inside Ensui's poison kit and its antidote. He had started to desensibilize her to poisons, since he wanted her to poison her weapons later on. After pouring a bit of water in a glass, she dropped the pill in the liquid and watched it dissolve in a rain of white particles.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

She looked into her friend's eyes until he nodded. He still looked scared, but he had that determination in the eyes that would make him a great shinobi one day. With a small encouraging smile, Hitomi held him the glass and watched him drink it all in a few hasty gulps.

A few moments later, she had to help him lay down on the bed. He was a lot paler than before and sweat dripped on his face. He was shaking, his hands clutched his aching belly. Small scared whines escaped him while tears started to flow on his cheeks.

"There, put this under your tongue and let it melt. It's the antidote. Everything will be fine. You are very brave, Gaara."

He nodded and obeyed, holding Hitomi's hand in his own shaky and wet one. She lulled him until it was over and his organism was purged from the poison — she could feel him relax progressively in her arms.

"You... You should hate me."

He had muttered these words, barely audibly, his face wet with tears hidden in his friend's neck. She backed down a bit, just enough to put both her hands on his cheeks and dry his tears.

"What are you talking about? I could never hate you even if my life depended on it. I'm so proud of you and of being your friend. Friends hurt each other sometimes, Gaara, physically or emotionally. It doesn't mean they don't love each other, and I love you very much. Will you still be my friend?"

With a small, hasty nod, the little boy hid back in her arms, bursting into loud sobs that she knew were liberating. She let him cry all his fill, tracing comforting circles on his back until he fell asleep. An hour later, Ensui found them both deeply sleeping. He saw the empty glass and the faint traces of poison, his stuff being messed around with, but he didn't say anything. Sometimes, he just didn't want to know.

* * *

_Sorry about the delay. It's just that with winter comes illness, and illness was strong in my household! My 2yo caught some potent coughs and all kinds of nastiness and well, I followed her in the delights of frozen sniffles and overall misery. _

_Hope you all liked this chapter though! _


	10. The Project

In the middle of an agitated night, a new idea hit Hitomi's mind. She rose in her bed, her eyes wide open, her body fully awakened by an adrenaline shot. She threw the blankets at her feet and rose up in such a hasty movement that she almost fell on the cold floor. She had to struggle with the lamp on her desk to get some light, muttering about her fingers going numb because of her feverish impulse.

Opening a still blank notebook, she threw her ideas on the paper in a messy way that didn't seem like her, absurdly afraid she would forget about it — as if she was used to forgetting anything. There was something that filled her with joy when she watched her thoughts laid on paper, to realize that this genius strike was doable — she didn't understand how any Master or Mistress of Seals had never thought of it before.

"Hitomi?" She jumped, pulled out of her trance, and instinctively threw her pen like a weapon in the voice's direction. Ensui caught the improvised projectile between his index and middle finger, raising a perplex eyebrow. Okay, that was an excellent instinct, but still surprising. "Would you care to explain why you're up in the middle of the night when you're supposed to be at dawn in the training room?"

The little girl finally raised her eyes from her work. Ensui couldn't help but snigger when he saw that she had put ink on the tip of her nose. It reminded him of his own training, thirty years ago. He had been exalted too, and hadn't bothered to appear proper and neat in every circumstance. Once again, he thanked the Kami with a quick prayer for putting Hitomi on his way.

"S-sorry, shishou. It's just that... I just had an idea, a very good idea that could change our world. I can't go back to sleep now. I'm not even tired anymore."

The man entered the room with a sigh, his feet gently tapping on the tatamis. Hitomi had had a very good laugh when she had seen his pajama t-shirt with shurikens on it, with a softness in her eyes that said she wasn't laughing _at _him. She didn't even say a word when she saw it anymore, she just smiled knowingly. Tying his hair in a messy ponytail on the top of his head, perfectly aware he wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon, he looked at what her apprentice had written over her small shoulder.

It took him a few moments to understand. It was very technical, exploiting kanji and ornaments he had never used before, even though he had seen them in the books he had studied and then given to the little girl for her own training. Frowning, he stroked one line in particular with a long finger, tapping the paper as if to underline his own reflexion.

"It is possible indeed... But it will require a lot of work."

"Can I try, please? Please, shishou!"

He glanced at her and almost swayed under those large red eyes, full of supplication, eagerness and impatience. He just couldn't resist. With one hand, he lightly tapped his apprentice's shoulder. She had grown a lot the last few months, and he realized it sometimes ; it hit him like a rock in his face.

"I think you're able to do this. You can try, but only if it doesn't interfere with your other duties, towards me and your friend."

She would have a lot less free time, but Ensui knew she could manage this kind of pressure. He guessed that she would be impressive in a few years, after her puberty, exactly like he'd guessed when he had seen her for the first time. She would beat him someday; he was sure of it.

Then, it was decided. That night, Hitomi didn't sleep, deeply buried in complicated math and ink tests. At dawn, when Gaara brought them breakfast, she was still bent on her notebook, and she had taken more than half of its pages during the last few hours. She rubbed her eyes, spreading ink a bit more on her face. Now she looked a bit like her friends, with her eyes underlined with black.

"Oh, thank you Gaara!"

She stood up and hugged him lightly. She had discovered over the last few days that Gaara liked hugs, but didn't know how to respond to them, so she had taken to hug him at least five times a day. He was already more at ease, throwing his arms around her neck with a small noise that sounded a bit like a satisfied kitten's purr. He was so adorable!

"Hitomi-nee, did you fall in an inkwell?"

The little girl raised her head, surprised, and glanced at her reflection in the mirror on her door. She grimaced when she saw how her face and hair looked. Some loose strands of her hair had probably dipped in the inkwell and she had black strokes on her shoulders and neck as well.

"Hmm... I should go and wash up, and change clothes too. Can you wait with shishou?"

The little boy obediently wandered away under Hitomi's tender smile. It was still weird to her to be stuck in a body only a year — almost two, actually — older than Gaara. She behaved as if she was twice her age with him, and if he had had other trustworthy people around him to use as reference, he would have realized it by now. But it didn't matter: Hitomi was what Gaara needed, and if that implied behaving like a teenager or an adult when she was only five years old, it was a sacrifice she could make.

A few minutes later, she got out of the bathroom decidedly cleaner, wearing the training outfit Ensui had to adapt to her height every three months for it to still fit. Hitomi was wondering sometimes if she would remain small like she had been in her previous life or if this growth spurt would continue until she actually looked like an adult. Being taller than five feet, six inches would be great for a kunoichi, right?

Once in the training room she started greeting the sun, Gaara following each of her movements. She sighed, content. Her back had suffered from her almost full night bent over her notebook and books, and the muscles could now be properly warmed up and stretched like they wanted to. More than once her joints cracked, making her grunt in relief. She had to find a solution to be able to study without having this kind of sore pains.

This particular day she was to fight with her clone, with weapons this time. Ensui was trying to find what weapon would suit her best — he wasn't keen on letting her wander defenseless in the city that was not exactly an ally, even though Gaara followed her everywhere and could defend her with his sand if needed. Actually, Ensui didn't like much about Suna. He hated the sand that was getting everywhere, the metallic taste of the local water, the sun that scorched his pale skin. Although he was always a bit grumpy, about this last problem, he always took great care in putting solar cream on Hitomi's skin before protecting his own, and deep down he loved this country even though the child couldn't really understand why just yet.

Kunai as close-range weapons didn't suit her. They were too short, and even with one in each hand, she felt a bit unbalanced while trying to create a security circle. She was frustrated to have to be so close to her opponent to land a hit.

With katanas she had another problem: she lacked precision, and the length of the blade was a bit of a burden for some of her hits. She found herself frustrated, fighting back a scream when she impaled herself on the wood saber as she tried to raise it to protect herself.

What suited her the best was the tantō. It was a kind of short sword that one could use with only one hand and could store virtually anywhere. Tantōs adapted themselves much better to anyone who was wielding them, and when Ensui held out the little wood sword to her, Hitomi showed immediate interest.

It took her a few moments to get used to this weapon's balance, but the length of it was ideal, just enough for her to have a satisfying security circle around her. The tantō was also incredibly light, and she gained in speed what she lost in range. She tried her maneuverability against Ensui's shadow clone, fighting it until her shoulders shook with weariness.

"Well, I think we've found your weapon, Hitomi. Go and have fun with Gaara and be back on time."

The little girl nodded enthusiastically, but she took great care in storing the weapons she had used before leaving, out of respect for her master that had rented them just for her. After all, it took a great deal of convincing to be able to train a child in a Hidden Village that you weren't from. Suna didn't gain anything from allowing Konoha children to get stronger. Peace between the two villages was still a very fragile thing, and Hitomi knew things would get worse before they would get better.

Once ready, she and Gaara went to a little stand nearby the hotel that sold take-away food. Her palate had gotten used to the spices Sunajins seemed so fond of. Unlike the first days in the city, she didn't heat up everytime she took a bite of any local food, and it was better like that. At least Gaara couldn't make fun of her red cheeks and sweaty forehead everytime she tasted a new dish anymore.

Both children enjoyed a pleasant afternoon, as usual. Sometimes, other children had tried to annoy Hitomi but as soon as they had seen Gaara they had fled. The little girl was grateful to her friend for the silent protection he offered; it would not be great for foreign relations if she was starting to beat up little Sunajisn, even if they started it.

When Gaara took her back to the hotel, she was more enthusiastic than usual when they said goodbye. After all, he would be the first person to use her project if it worked as she had planned. She hugged him tightly, not bothered in the slightest by the sand raising around them. Gaara couldn't always control his power, and she didn't mind getting a few scratches once in a while. It was a small price to pay for his friendship.

She found Ensui in their small living room. He was waiting for her, cross-legged on the sofa with a chemistry book on his knees. His hair was still a bit wet because of the shower he had just taken to try and protect himself from the desert's heat. It was a fool's errand, if his frowning expression was any indication. After grabbing a small cake on a plate left there by the room service, she sat on the floor in front of him.

The lesson was fascinating and left Hitomi with her head buzzing with formulas. After a few months of practice, she had managed to make her very first smoke bombs but wasn't satisfied with their colour, so Ensui had chosen to make this day's lesson about pigments, were they came from, their power and their particular effects when mixed with other substances.

After that, he told her about history, focusing on the last Shinobi Great War, which he had been a part of. It was on the battlefield that he had earned the nickname which designated him in the bingo book, along with one indication: "flee on sight." As soon as he started explaining, Hitomi understood that her master hated war, found it dirty and thuggish, but had complied to his orders out of loyalty to his country. He finished his story, telling her about what had caused the rift between him and the Third Hokage, and it broke Hitomi's heart.

"I had a ten years old boy, Chōjirō, when ROOT was founded again. He was so gifted... A genius just like Shikamaru and you. He was able to master his shadows with a dexterity even I didn't manage to gain, ever. Of course, we were in a very tense era. Despite his young age he was already Genin, and on his way to be promoted. Danzō took him off his team and put that damn seal on his tongue. He sent him on dangerous missions he could not tell me anything about and always came back hurt. One day, he didn't come back. They told me they couldn't find his body. I... I didn't even get to bury him properly."

Hitomi couldn't find the words that would have eased her shishou's pain. Honestly, she didn't even know if those words existed or not. She just put a hand on his forearm and didn't stare at his face, because she knew he would be embarrassed if he knew she could see and hear his tears. He had never cried in front of her, and a lot of ninjas thought tears were a weakness. She thought that crying took bravery to face one's griefs.

They didn't start the lesson again after that. Hitomi poured a glass of lemonade for her master, then went to fetch her books about seals and kept working in the living room, her back resting on Ensui's leg. After about half an hour, he had managed to get over his pain enough to be able to sometimes help her with a particularly useful information for her project. Thanks to him, she made a lot of progress, even though she was not ready for an experiment yet.

"I suppose you will need quite a lot of paper to try and make this work."

"Hm hm," she answered, thoughtfully biting her pen."I'd like to make them look like little books, about the size of a hand, but with rigid covers. Do you think I can find some in the bookshop?"

He thought about it for a while before answering, tapping his knees with his fingertips as if it helped him to focus.

"I think you might. Your mum gave me some money for you to spend when you left. I was waiting until you needed it to talk to you about it... And I guess you already know how you're going to spend it."

She laughed, a free, soft sound that soothed both of their hearts and threw her head back until she was able to meet his eyes, despite the awkward position. Suppleness was really useful in some cases.

"Could I have the money tomorrow please? I want to go around bookshops with Gaara."

Since it had worked wonders before, Hitomi decided to try again with her special technique that she called "Sad Kitten Eyes no Jutsu." She didn't quite know why she had added "Jutsu" — maybe it just felt more serious? You couldn't really talk about a real ninja technique. After all, she didn't use any chakra, just a bright combination of her big red eyes and a slightly trembling lower lip. It wasn't her fault if adults — especially Ensui and Shikaku — were especially easy to get with this one. When he sighed so deeply it almost felt like it would stir the whole desert, she knew she had won and hugged him a bit too enthusiastically.

* * *

_Hi! Sorry I've taken so long to post this. The holidays were CRAZY and so tiring and I just kind of forgot about posting. I will get back to our usual schedule though! _

_Hope you like this one. As always, kudos to Zachanariel for coming up with this lovely story and letting me translating it. xx_

_Percy _


	11. Good Progress

"I still don't understand why you need this many blank books," muttered Gaara, sweating with effort.

Oh, he was not the only one who was struggling. Hitomi was virtually drowning under dozens of books she had purchased earlier. After a little while, Gaara had had enough and had summoned part of his sand to carry half his share of books. The Sunajin they met on their way probably thought they were hallucinating when they saw their own demon flanked by the little pest that he seemed to cling to, rendered inoffensive because of the books' weight.

"I'm working on a fūinjutsu project."

"Yes, I know that! But you have enough to open a library now. Don't you think you went a bit overboard?"

Hitomi thought about it for a second, contemplating the dozens of coloured covers that laid in her arms and on a sand cushion.

"Nope!"

Gaara frowned when he heard this weird word, but he had eventually decided it was just his best friend's way of speaking. Disturbingly, he had taken to use "nope", "yep" and "hm-hm" when he wasn't being careful. He couldn't even be mad at her.

"And what's this project again?"

"A big secret that I won't share with you until it's done, you curious little thing."

"But you told Ensui-san!"

Hitomi almost gave up. She should never have taught Gaara the Eyes. He was very good at it, and way too adorable. But she shook herself out of it, freeing her mind from the "technique", and threw the brightest smile at him. She could play her assets too.

"I told Ensui because he has at least twenty years of experience with fūinjutsu, while I'm just getting started. And I want it to be ready before I leave."

"But whyyyyyy?"

This time, she heartily laughed. Seeing Gaara act like a boy his age was just... It was a consecration. She was so happy she almost felt like dropping her books and spin him around in her arms. Although if she did that, his sand would probably beat her up, and she didn't want to damage her new purchases. But her heart was full.

"You'll see!"

She started running at that, using her ninja skills to prevent the books from falling, glad to hear Gaara's hurried steps behind her. She only got there before him because she had trained and run for almost a year now, and her body really started to comply to ninja arts. With a playful laugh, she got to their suite first, not caring about the sand she would leave on the ground. Gaara was hopeless with that anyway.

Ensui was reading, slouched like a proper Nara on the couch, and raised his head when he heard her barge in so noisily — it wasn't like her to do that. He raised both eyebrows when he saw the mountain of books she had bought and bit the inside of his cheek when he saw how much Gaara was carrying, but when he saw their pink cheeks and bright eyes, he decided to let it slide. Casually, faking a slowness that wasn't typically him but worked very well with Naras' traditional laziness, he got up and caught the books on top of Hitomi's pile that threatened to drop on the floor and started to store them where he could.

"I hope that you'll have what you need to finish your project. What will you do if you have extras?"

"Oh, I'll find some use for them," she answered with a small, secret smile.

With a resigned sigh, Ensui didn't comment further and offered a glass of lemonade to both children, leaving them to calm down for half an hour. He knew it wouldn't do any good to throw them into work right now. Oh, they would be able to begrudgingly focus, but why should he prevent them from having fun? Deep down, he had to admit he liked seeing his protégée this happy, and he had come to like the little jinchūriki that followed her everywhere.

Once they were both calmer, he started this day's lesson. On some occasions, he allowed Gaara to stay, getting that the little boy didn't benefit from the same training than his pupil. To teach him first aid, like today, couldn't hurt anyone. On the contrary, it would do them some good, since Hitomi had someone her size to practise with. Both children deeply trusted each other.

When the lesson was over, Gaara accepter gracefully to go back home, saying goodbye to Hitomi like he used to with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Hitomi was really going to miss him once she left Suna. She had learned to know and like him, and she saw him as a true friend, someone she could confide in. It would be hard, when she wouldn't be able to see her every day.

Once he left, she browsed through her fūinjutsu books. Some of them were very old, and she was quite sure Ensui had not legally acquired them. He sometimes left the suite for a few hours in the middle of the night and when he came back the next morning, there was a new pile of books on Hitomi's desk, books that smelt like the city's library but never went back there. Truth be told, Hitomi didn't care that her master was stealing books from a foreign country to give them to her. If they were accessible to the public in the first place, he wouldn't have to go through these lengths. But no, they had to keep this section of the library from everyone who wasn't a Suna Jōnin... Ridiculous.

The evening was drawing to an end when she decided she was ready for her first test. She retrieved two blank books from one of the piles in a corner of her room and, under Ensui's watchful gaze, started drawing her seals on the inside covers of both books, where she had modified them to incorporate sealing paper. Her penmanship had improved a lot those last few months, as she needed to be excellent in calligraphy to be a proper fūinjutsu apprentice. She still needed to progress a lot before anyone could call her a Seal Mistress, but her level was acceptable for what she needed.

After about twenty minutes, her first test was ready. Kneading her chakra, she impregnated one page with it after tracing a few kanji on the paper, her eyes fill with hungry impatience. She could only thank Ensui's prodigious reflex since he dragged her backwards quickly enough for her to narrowly escape the flame column that arose from nothing and consummated both books exactly at the same time. A few handseals later, the fire was extinguished by Ensui's Suiton technique.

"What's your verdict, O Seal Mistress?" he asked in a playful tone, trying to lighten her mood.

Hitomi kept her serious and removed a few loose strands of hair from her eyes swiftly, putting them behind her ears.

"The combustion was definitely not planned and means that the seal still lacks stability. However, the fact that both books burst in flames exactly at the same time is a good sign, right shishou?"

Ensui laughed at the sight she was offering, untidy but so enthusiastic. She had just failed spectacularly and yet she didn't seem affected at all, besides being impatient to go back to her search. He messed the already unkempt hairdo of the little girl before answering,

"I agree with you. But considering how violently it reacted, I forbid you from doing any test without supervision. We will stay in Suna for another week and a half. You will be able to finish before we leave. All right?"

The little girl obediently accepted those conditions. They made sense, after all. Hitomi didn't have Ensui's ability and couldn't extinguish any fire with a few handseals. She didn't have big enough chakra reserves to learn ninjutsu techniques, and those were even more out of her leagues. The water stream her shishou had made must have been at least rank B.

After researching for another hour, she was ready to make another try. It was another failure; both books had fallen into dust this time. It was frustrating, but at least she was able to determine why she had failed after browsing her books for a few minutes. Suddenly, Ensui didn't think she had been that extra with all the books she had purchased, although she did seem to have bought every blank book in the city.

She had only ten days left, and she was adamant on succeeding before living Hidden Sand. The simple thought of Gaara's reaction when she would give him the first stable version of her project was priceless. She wouldn't miss on the occasion to really see that. She didn't count her hours spent working nor how many books and tracts she had to browse through to find useful information. She had chosen a notebook among those she had bought to take notes in, to be able to find information more quickly.

The most complicated thing was to hide her work without putting its stability at risk. Ensui had given her a long lecture about how secret fūinjutsu masters had to be if they didn't want their seals to fall in enemies' hands. She had to find a way to complexify her seal with several layers of ink, so one wouldn't know which one really activated her work and which were decoys, without putting the whole fragile seal at risk.

During training, Hitomi understood that she had to learn how to compartmentalize her thoughts. She was fighting, tantō against tantō with a clone summoned by her master, her bare feet slapping the tatamis everytime she dodged, but part of her mind was focused on the last thing she struggled against on her project. She was doing her best to give her opponent all her attention, but she had to be honest: she wasn't near focused enough.

Then she was struggling, the clone pressing harder and harder her weak points, and her feet tangled, making her trip. Usually, the clone gave her a second to recover, but this time it kept going, the wooden blade hitting her shoulder hard. Her pain cry didn't stop it either, and the little girl couldn't protect herself or attack back.

And then...

Suddenly.

Suddenly the world around her morphed into a sand whirlwind, the billions of golden grains flowing around her in an unbreakable defence. The clone exploded, and its wood tantō fell back on the ground with a muffled sound. Putting a hand on her shoulder to try and figure out how much she was hurt, Hitomi tried to straighten up. She was gasping for breath, her hair stuck to her neck and face because of sweat.

She couldn't see it but outside the circle, Gaara and Ensui were facing each other and even their attitudes clashed. The Nara seemed relaxed, as always, while the child was as tight as a bow, both hands raised to order his sand around and protect his precious friend.

"Call your sand back, kid. The lesson is not over."

"Yes, it's over! You hurt her!"

"She wasn't focused! What are you thinking, kid? Do you suppose enemy ninjas will wait for her to pay attention before they do a thousand times worse? I'm not about to watch my apprentice die because she wouldn't focus properly on threats she encounters!"

Weighty silence followed the master's furious sputter. Mortified, Hitomi curled up behind the sand wall, slightly shaking. She knew Ensui was right, of course, but she had worked so hard since they had begun her training so she would not disappoint him, so she would always see this pride in his look that made her feel tall and dignified, and now she didn't know how to react now that she had angered him this much. She felt her face redden with shame and her eyes prickled but it would have been ridiculous to cry for that.

Gaara called back his sand, obviously begrudgingly, and the sand stopped whirling around Hitomi, going back to its master's feet. When he wasn't using it, Gaara made his sand take an animal's form since he didn't have his gourd yet to transport it. Sometimes, his creations were so lively one could have been fooled.

Ensui was beside Hitomi first, falling on his knees to get to her height. With a soft, careful hand, he moved aside her top to see the wound he had given her. His face was hardened impassively while his dark gray eyes were watching her fair skin, marked with a deep, painful bruise. Without comment, he held out a hand for her to take, on her good shoulder's side.

"Come too, Gaara."

Without checking if the boy complied — nobody ever dared disobey when he used that tone — the man turned around and led his apprentice in the hotel's corridors and stairs, that they both knew perfectly then. In merely three days, they would leave behind them the desert and every wonder it had, even though it would be difficult. Hitomi's training was not over, not even close, and he still had things to show and teach her before it was time for her to go back to Konoha.

Once in their suite's living room, he gestured for his apprentice to sit on the sofa and asked her to take off her top, giving her a towel to hide what had to be covered. He knew that children her age were not generally modest, but Hitomi was different and he didn't want to see anything he shouldn't see.

His face was now bearing an emotion Hitomi couldn't recognize. Ensui lightly stroked the bruise, then made it disappear under his callous, scarred palm. To his apprentice, his hands were beautiful, worthy of the ninja he was and how much he had worked to get there. She closed her eyes with a relieved sigh when a greenish chakra appeared under his long fingers, reducing the bruise bit by bit. When he pulled his hand back, the bruise was a weak yellow shade and didn't hurt anymore when she moved her arm, only when she pressed on it, which she only did once. Medical ninjutsu was a miracle.

"I'm really sorry, Hitomi. Gaara was right, I've been too hard on you. You need to learn this lesson, but I've been too harsh. Sometimes I forget you're still a child."

Wide eyed and her breath caught in her chest, Hitomi stared at her master. Next to her, Gaara had the same reaction. Neither was used to adults admitting their wrongs and even less apologizing and saying a child had been wiser than them. The little girl was the first to pull herself together, and she lightly tapped her master's shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"It's okay, shishou. Look, it's almost healed now! I know you won't do this again, and you're right when you say I need to learn."

Those words didn't really ease Ensui's guilt, since he had never thought he would one day go too far, but he could recognize the mix of gentleness and kindness that pushed her to forgiveness. One didn't really forgive that easily with a memory like hers, unable to forget anything. He had lived among his clan long enough to know that.

After he had made sure his apprentice was really okay, he authorized Gaara to take her to lunch. Later, still feeling a bit guilty, he made sure to shorten the lesson, so she could have more time to work on her secret project. The sooner she was done with it, the sooner she would be able to focus entirely again.

* * *

_Hi there! Here's this week's update. I hope you guys like it! _

_As always, I am merely the translator. u/Zachanariel is the real MVP here. _


	12. Leaving

In the middle of the night, a victorious cry suddenly woke several of the hotel's guests. Some of them began muttering angrily. But none dared to go and knock at the door and to confront the adult that inhabited the suite where the noise came from: they had seen his headband, and none was reckless enough to dismiss his dangerous aura.

In the suite's living room, Hitomi was jumping up and down, overexcited. She threw her overjoyed self in her master's arms and he hugged her back, laughing heartily. He had seen his apprentice pour everything she had in this project, and he was delighted for her, almost as happy as her, to see that she had finally done it.

Her deadline had been so close that he had allowed her to stay awake that night. They were to leave Suna and say goodbye to Gaara the next morning, and they would go back towards the Land of Fire. Ensui would then train Hitomi for a few more months. He wanted her to see many more places before she went back to Konoha. Once his protégée was part of a team, she would be able to get by in the wild.

And Ensui had to admit it: Hitomi's feat was incredible for her age. He was astounded that no seal master had had this idea before her, but he knew that he would never have been able to do so, although he had the required skills. One day, one very close day, she would be stronger than him in fūinjutsu, and would need someone more skilled than him if she didn't want to learn on her own. As if seal masters were foundable everywhere.

Gaara was at their door at dawn, extremely punctual for a four year old child. Hitomi had never really managed to reassure him and convince him that she would always be her friend, even if he was late, and since punctuality was a very good quality she had let him be.

The suite had been emptied of everything that had been their life this last month. Weapons and clothes were back in their bags, and Hitomi's surviving notebooks had been stored in a storage sea that was in her own bag. There were only two notebooks left, laid flat on the coffee table, but those were really, really special.

The two children didn't manage very well to hide their sadness while eating breakfast, which the youngest had brought them. Ensui was too respectful of his pupil to pretend he hadn't noticed, but neither of them could be late. The caravan they had escorted on their way to Suna would leave without them if they weren't there at the agreed time. Thus, he nodded encouragingly to the little girl.

She stood instantly. Her eyes were not exactly dry, but she held herself upright, as the kunoichi she would become — one could already see a glimpse of this future in her look, the way she wore her wood tantō at her belt and the airy lightness of her steps. With a movement that was almost ceremonious, she picked up the two notebooks that waited on the coffee table and went to join Gaara who had watched her melancholically.

"I... I'd like to give you something before we leave. I know you'll be by yourself again, and I'll miss you, so I thought... Here, that's for you."

She gave him one of the notebooks, a beautiful thing she had chosen for its turquoise cover — the exact shade of Gaara's eyes. On the back of the book, she had engraved the two kanji that formed his name. The little boy stared at the present without understanding, a very visible perplexity on his face.

"You're... giving me a notebook?"

A bit embarrassed, she flushed and showed him the one she had kept for herself. It was red and black, and the word "Gaara" was engraved on the leather back.

"You see, the project I've been working on lately... is that. Hang on, I'll show you."

She opened her own notebook, picked up a pencil and wrote a few words on the front page. Once that was done, she used a bit of chakra and injected it in the page she had written on. At once, the book in Gaara's hand went colder by about ten celsius degrees, causing him to yelp in surprise. Hitomi had realized pretty quickly that on paper, making it become hotter would have been dangerous.

"Open it."

The little boy obeyed and raised his eyebrows when he saw the message that had appeared on the first page of his notebook. He wanted to understand, to hope, but he didn't dare to, fearing the bitter disappointment he would feel if he was wrong.

"You see," Hitomi added, "like that we will be able to keep in —"

She didn't even manage to finish her sentence before he was jumping on her, hugging her as tightly as he could. And he had gotten so much stronger! Obviously, Hitomi hadn't been the only one who reinforced her body during Ensui's training sessions. With an exalted laugh, she hugged him tightly as well with her free hand, stroking his hair.

"I love you, Hitomi-nee!"

The declaration surprised her. With wide eyes she searched for Ensui's look, taking advantage of the fact that Gaara couldn't see her, with a hint of panic inside her red eyes. When her master nodded slightly and smiled encouragingly at her, she hugged him tighter and said in an endeared voice, "I love you too, Gaara."

She spent the fifteen minutes that followed explaining him how the notebook worked. He could write as much as he could before he infused chakra in the paper. The whole message would then be sent to Hitomi's notebook. She didn't say that to him, but she had discovered she could link as much notebooks as she wanted to the master notebook, and she was planning to use it to establish a small network of her own. The notebook became cold when it received a message, and stayed that way until it was opened. Then, you had one hour to read the message before it disappeared — enough to copy it if you wanted to keep a trace before answering.

Both children agreed they would write each other once a day, and to warn beforehand when they couldn't manage. They also decided that they could send more messages in case of an emergency, but that the other one wasn't obligated to answer right away. Hitomi would start the Academy once she went back to Konoha, after all, and Gaara would begin his own training soon. Hitomi doubted he would go to Suna's Academy. The professors wouldn't know how to handle him. But on the other hand, who would be able to? Even this parody of an uncle he had at home made Hitomi want to hurt him.

Saying goodbye was difficult, but it was made much easier by the possibility they had to keep in touch. Gaara was barely beginning to learn how to write, but drawings could be transmitted too from one notebook to another, and it would be another motivation for him to learn quicker. Until he said he was ready to start using kanji, she would write to him in kana, and he would do the same. She knew he was smart and that it would change quickly.

She had never asked herself any question about how precocious ninjas were. They often learned how to read and write before they reached six years old; their parents made sure they knew how to do both things before sending them off to the Academy, whereas they were supposed to learn that in school. Gaara was already doing great for an almost five years old boy. And Hitomi... Well, Hitomi was special.

A few members of the caravan greeted them kindly, remembering the man and the child that had helped with maintenance but kept to themselves during meals and their trainings when the convoy had to stop during the warmest hours. This time, another team was to escort them, three Chūnin, and Hitomi was very glad to realise that her meridians' perceptions had been locked in their cage for more than two weeks. She didn't even have to back away from the shinobi to protect herself.

Just like their first trip, the journey became a bit dull quite quickly. Fortunately this time, besides reading, she had other things to keep busy, like her work on seals. It took her two days in the midst of the desert to make a notebook for Shikamaru. She missed her cousin dearly and when she worked for him, she felt a bit better.

She had also started making her own storage seals. They were horribly expensive back in the village, and thus every ninja who knew a bit about fūinjutsu made their own. As for exploding tags, they had been the first seals she had been able to make, but as her master's righteous student, she favoured the bombs chemistry made for her. That said, if she found a way to make tags that would make a chemical reaction... With a ferocious smile that shook a little bit the Chūnin who just happened to be watching her at that exact moment, she carefully stored this new idea in the "Projects" section of her Library.

During the journey, she also learned some survival methods in the desert. One night, Ensui took her away from camp until she couldn't see it anymore and ordered her to wait for two hours, then go back to their camp without using her meridians. It was harder than she had thought it would be, but she managed after searching her way back for a while. He reiterated the exercise a few times, until he was sure she would be able to get by in such an environment.

The lessons kept flowing but were never the same. One of the Chūnins of the team was fourteen years old and quite small for his age; soon, he was made her sparring partner. To reduce his own advantages, he was to only use taijutsu, while Hitomi was allowed her wood tantō. She didn't manage to beat him, but she was at least good at dodging his attacks. Ensui was proud of her, and to her, it was better than any victory.

One night, while she was bored and her own project didn't seem tempting, she got out of her seal one of the blank notebooks that had survived to her tests. She went inside her Library until she found what she was looking for, and started to write down the beginning of a book she had read when she had been a child in her previous life. It was difficult, because she had to translate from French to Japanese, but after all it had been her job before she fell too ill to be able to work in the Previous World.

Every night, she waited impatiently for her book to grow cold, and for her to respond to Gaara's letters. She liked it when he told her about his days. He finally had an instructor that didn't merely watch him from a distance but also taught him stuff. He was the Jōnin that would one day become his sensei, Baki. He told her all about what he had learned during the day, with his still clumsy penmanship, and she answered with what she had done during hers. Deep down, they didn't really care about what they had to say to each other. What mattered to them was that they were here for each other, through paper and ink voices.

And then, finally, the desert's border was seen. The caravan's weight was lighter, and the trip had been faster this way. Hitomi had found the second trip less boring than the first, and when Ensui decided that it was time for them to go their own way and part with their travel companions, she said her goodbyes with her most adorable smile. She was happy to be alone again with Ensui. The fact that he was less grouchy now that he had grass under his feet didn't do anything to spoil the mood.

* * *

_There you go! Happy sunday. Also, was my birthday yesterday, and I'm very glad I didn't forget to post that this morning! _


	13. The Ninja Arts

Ensui didn't want to get anywhere close to a Hidden Village before going back to Konoha, and was careful to avoid the River Country's, which separated Suna from Konoha. To do so, as soon as they went out of the desert, he led them south and after a day and a half of travel they had reached the sea. He watched with a tender eye Hitomi marvel at this new sight.

This sea couldn't be more different than the dirty, gray waters she had known in her first life. Here, the blue of the sea was clear and pure, reflecting a cloudless sky. The waves didn't carry any filth but instead gently rolled the pebbles they reached rhythmically.

Delighted and with her master's approval, Hitomi wandered at length on the pebble beach, playing with the tiny waves that licked her bare feet. The water had been warmed all day by the sun and was almost lukewarm, and wonderfully see through. She would tell everything she had seen to Gaara and would take him one day on a beach, maybe this one. She already dreamt of his wide eyes, filled with wonder, and of his soft smile.

When she had played enough, she obediently went back to Ensui. He had started to make them a camp, sufficiently far from the beach so they wouldn't sleep on pebbles. He had gathered driftwood to show the green and blue flames to Hitomi, taking the opportunity to slip a small chemistry lesson in. That evening, they both hunted in the undergrowth, about a mile away from the beach. Hitomi caught a rabbit and Ensui two birds, which they ate in silence, warmed up by the flames.

Hitomi had to admit that despite how much she liked Gaara, she had missed being alone with her master. Oh, the little boy hadn't been around all the time, but in the hotel, the relationship between Ensui and his pupil had not been the same. They had had to adapt, to include a third party in their dynamic, because Hitomi would not have tolerated excluding her friend and Ensui would have been disappointed in her if she had done so.

Hitomi's birthday came a few days later, while they were going up the seaside to get into Fire Country. The weather was only starting to get colder: in the south, winters were shorter and even more moderate than in Konoha. The little girl hadn't expected any present. She knew her master had other priorities than to buy her a gift since they were so remote from any civilization.

And yet, on her birthday's morning, he had something to give her. While she finished greeting the sun, he held up to her with both hands a long package, carefully wrapped in red silk. Adults seemed to determine it was Hitomi's colour and she wasn't about to disagree with them. Suddenly breathless and nervous, she took the package with both hands to show her master her reverence and respect.

Once she had removed the silk that wrapped her present, Hitomi found herself holding a tantō like the ones which were displayed in noble mansions in the Fire Country. Almost trembling, she stroked with her fingertips the smooth black of the sheath. Over the black leather was a herd of deer and does that ran all the way to the guard. Slowly, she unsheathed the weapon, a movement she had practised a thousand times with her wooden blade. This blade was lighter, and so clean, so shiny, that she could see her reflection in it. Eyes watering, Hitomi had to swallow the bubbles of emotions that had appeared in her throat.

"You like it," said Ensui in a deeply satisfied voice.

"It's... It's..."

Unable to find words to express how she felt about it, the little girl tore her gaze away from her new blade and raised her definitely wet eyes.

"Thank you, shishou. I will treat her well."

"Her? Do you have a name?"

"Not yet. I'll tell you once I find it."

Still with reverence, the little girl sheathed the blade back and let Ensui help her hang it to her belt. Seven years would have to pass and go before she would graduate and think about a battle outfit, but he had a few ideas for her, ideas he would walk her through once they would get back to the village. After all, he had plenty of resources at hand. The others wouldn't know what hit them, once she would join Konoha's forces.

The next days were a bit more relaxed. Finally, they crossed the Fire Country's border, but Ensui didn't want to go to Konoha just yet, since he wanted to make sure his apprentice knew the place like the inside of her own pocket. Now she was able to run for hours without getting tired, even though she wasn't as quick as experienced ninjas yet. She hadn't learned how to strengthen her muscles with chakra, and he wanted to correct that.

One day, it rained very hard, so hard they weren't able to continue walking. The master was not opposed to push his apprentice beyond her limits, but to cause her to fall ill in the middle of nowhere would have been stupid. He knew a bit of medical ninjutsu, but not nearly enough to cure illness. However, he didn't want them to lose time doing nothing, and Hitomi was deemed ready, at six years old, to perform a training that was normally for main branches of some ninja clans. Fortunately and coincidentally, the clans that had once sheltered those secrets were almost all extinguished now, and nobody would accuse them of stealing their ancestral knowledge.

"Chakra," he explained to Hitomi, "is a force that can be found in any living thing, but also in the environment. You produce chakra, but that doesn't make you any different from a civilian. What makes the difference is the ability to use it for ninja techniques. Any civilian can become a ninja, but clan children will always be better in performance. Do you know why?"

She nodded, her big eyes, fascinated and eager, tracking every movement he made. He continued,

"There are two reasons. The first one is innate; the size of chakra reserves is partly hereditary. Some clans, like the Uzumaki and Yūki — which you're part of — were known for their prodigious reserves. A long time ago, adults from this clan were called the Tailless Beasts, because their reserves, once developed to their full capacity, were comparable to jinchūrikis'.

Hitomi almost choked when hearing that and had to struggle to not spit water through her nose. Before this day, she hadn't even been aware that she belonged to a clan from her mother's side. Of course, her father was a Nara, but she had never heard anything about the Yūhi clan. On the other hand, her mother and grandfather were the only two Yūhi she knew of... The last remaining Yūhi, besides her. Ensui gently tapped her back, waited for her to pull herself back together, and continued his lesson.

"Those two clans are both almost extinct today. You're the last known heiress of your clan, and as for Uzumakis... You know the jinchūriki that wears this name by reputation, right? I can't really talk about why they have been killed, but I can tell you that their chakra reserves have contributed in making them targets."

The little girl nodded, still staring at her master. She drank his words, storing every bit of information in a new book in her Library. In reality, she knew more than he supposed she did about Uzumaki clan, but she couldn't justify her awareness of these things without admitting she was from another word, and that was not going to happen. Ever.

"The second secret of clan children is their training, which begins way before the Academy. If your mother followed her father's and Shikaku's advice, she has started teaching you things that are taught in the Academy when you were only three. This gives you an advantage over civilian children, because at most they will have learned writing and reading basics before becoming aspiring ninjas."

It wasn't fair, of course, but Hitomi was glad she was born in the side that gave her an advantage. Her plans required from her to go and stand in very powerful ninjas' ways in a few years at most, and she needed every headstart she could get. Too bad if it wasn't fair.

"Today, I will teach you about chakra control basics. Civilians don't learn anything about this before third year in the Academy, but it's fundamental that you start today."

He had a leaf in his hands, which he had carefully dried with his chakra. He held it out to Hitomi, and she stared without understanding.

"You will try to use your chakra to stick this leaf to your forehead, without damaging it. You will keep trying until you succeed or until you cannot use chakra anymore."

The little girl obediently did as she was told. She had already used her chakra for a few little things before, but only by making it flow from her hand. It was something else entirely to focus it on her forehead, to use the right quantity — not enough chakra and the leaf fell, too much and it ripped apart — and to maintain it for a long time. It took her two hours and a little pile of leaves at her feet to get the first part of the exercise right. After that, she started to feel the first stages of chakra exhaustion, even though it was nothing compared to how she had felt when she had tried to isolate her meridians' perceptions for the first time.

It was extremely difficult for her to describe how it felt to have chakra. To Hitomi, it was like feeling a delightfully hot liquid flow through all of her body, swirl around her organs, magnifying her sensations. She often wondered if the other ninjas were aware of the energy's presence inside them, of the path drawn by their meridians. She could never really forget.

To send chakra in a specific part of her body was a tricky thing; the energy kept trying to go back to its normal track, and she was probably wasting some of it while kneading it. However, Ensui seemed satisfied when a leaf stuck to her forehead for more than one minute before falling down. Hitomi swore between her teeth.

"Keep trying. You're getting the hang of it."

"Yes, shishou."

Her motivation renewed by the compliment he had just given her, she picked up the undamaged leaf and glued it to her forehead with chakra again. Her hands had started shaking, but she didn't stop. She didn't stop either when her breathing became ragged, and when she started feeling dizzy. Staring at her master, she waited for his permission, and she didn't care if she had to burn all of her power before he gave it.

Indeed, he waited for that exact moment before catching her when she collapsed, breathing with difficulty and her heart beating so fast and so hard she felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. She was going to have another difficult night. Confused, she searched for Ensui's eyes, her need for an explanation clearly written on her face.

"The only way to increase your chakra reserves to their maximum potential is to empty them again and again, every day, during childhood. Just like suppleness and strength, you have to work for chakra reserves, and this work isn't free. You will suffer, maybe even hate me, but if you keep walking this path, someday people will call you a Tailless Demon too. That's what you want, right?"

Ensui wasn't an idiot. He had recognized his apprentice's thirst for power. He didn't see anything wrong with being eager for power. It was even a good thing for a ninja, a motivation that often made the difference between people who would keep their sensei and people who would have to choose between take another year of classes or reorient themselves when out of the Academy. He had never confronted her about it though and had waited for her to be exhausted to confess what he was about to make her go through.

And he didn't fail his word. Every day, Hitomi emptied her chakra reserves one way or another, often with control exercises. Once she was able to stick a leaf to her forehead for more than an hour, he added another on her right shoulder, then on her left, and cetera. He was finally satisfied when she was able to stick ten leaves to ten different parts of her body. Actually, once one had understood how to do it, it wasn't really difficult to add leaves. It wasn't difficult to change the material either. She used parchment and wool from her blankets and just had to find the right amount of chakra. The thinner the material, the more precise control was required, since she had to use less and less chakra everytime. When Hitomi reached the point where she was able to stick a silk paper sheet on her forehead without damaging it, it was time to go to the next step.

She was sick every night because of her lack of chakra, and sometimes, she had to admit she hated what her master put her through. Oh, she didn't hate _him_, because he took great care of her, sacrificing without thinking about it hours of sleep to comfort her and hold her hair behind her neck while she was throwing up, in agonizing pain. And she had to admit she felt her reserves grow every day. They filled quicker during the night, which meant it was getting harder for her to empty them during the day.

If she was able to go through this, it wouldn't be only because of Ensui, although he was very helpful. Somewhere in the misty fog induced by constant lack of chakra, a bright flame burned, pushing her relentlessly forward, forbidding her even the shortest break. Sometimes, even her master worried she was pushing herself too far, emptying her chakra as soon as it reappeared, but he couldn't deny this suffering would help her in the future. He could have called her burning flame Konoha's Will of Fire. She only called it her plan. Her desire to make things change for the best; the list of people who had to live and people who had to die.

Once Ensui was satisfied enough with her handling the leaf exercise, he taught her how to create and master a chakra string, in order to be able to fold origami without her hands. This exercise was trickier, since the precision it required was extreme. After a few weeks, Hitomi used silk paper sheets, without her master having to tell her anything. Her joints now ached permanently, but she refused to stop, to take the smallest break in the path her master had created for her. She would go forwards and forwards again until she couldn't make any more progress.

When she would reach the maximum of this brutal apprenticeship, she would just let time do its work. Puberty did wonders on a ninja's strength. It was one of the reasons that aspiring ninjas couldn't graduate until they were eleven years old in peace time and advised to wait until they were twelve. Children sent too early to war were just consummated physically and psychologically, and a vast majority of them never came back.

Four months after her birthday, she was ready to take another step on her path, according to Ensui. She took her first day of leisure since her birthday, feeling her full gates and reserves happily. For the first time in four months, she slept twelve hours straight like a log, and when she woke up, she was ready.


	14. An Indolent Fire

The morning after her day off, Hitomi was feeling better than she had in months. She had pushed the practice so much that she only needed one day for her reserves to replenish, while it had taken them a week at the beginning of their journey. And yet, her reserves' size had been increased considerably; they were at least ten times bigger. Most of the progress that was makeable at that stage had been made, and even control exercises couldn't empty her reserves entirely, even if she did them from dawn to twilight.

She now waited eagerly for time and age to bring her their own expansion. When she would reach fifteen years old, her reserves' size would increase another tenflod. She understood better why Yūhi were called Tailless Demons. If her mother and grandfather had such power, they probably didn't ever run out of chakra. That explained why Kurenai was considered as a prodigy in genjutsu, and was even able to deceive some Uchiha. Genjutsu, or illusion art, asked for a constant quantity of chakra to be transfered in the opponent's system to distrupt its flow, and people with a small chakra stock couldn't maintain an illusion for more than a minute. Some were saying that Kurenai was able to maintain her illusions for days on end before getting tired. As for Shinku Yūhi, her grandfather, she had not seen much of him before leaving Konoha. Her mother had explained that he had left for a long mission in the Land of Lightning. And yet she had heard legends about him too, and about giant cats that fought alongside him and devastated their opponents.

Once she was done with greeting the sun, Ensui led Hitomi to a clearing. For the first time since years, it was snowing in the Land of Fire, and the little girl wasn't sure she liked the low temperatures that came alongside it. To protect herself from the cold, she had to project her chakra in her whole body, and she wasn't gifted enough to do it without thinking about it yet.

"Today, you're going to begin a training that most ninjas don't do before leaving the Academy. You will climb a tree without using your hands. Every time you try, you will mark the tree trunk with this kunai, and will only stop if you're out of chakra or have succeeded. Any question?

Hitomi shook her head. She didn't need to be shown how to do it, because this exercise was quite close to the leaf one. It would only be more taxing in chakra, and would need more precision in terms of control. It was good. She needed to keep burning all of her chakra for a few weeks if she wanted to reach her maximum potential. And then she would have to let her body grow. She thought she had bigger reserves than anyone in her generation, except Naruto. Before Shippuden started, none of canon children besides Naruto had shown a particularly good chakra core.

It had become very rare to put children through such an extensive training. Hidden Villages had not been in war for more than ten years, and no parent wanted to see their child suffer night after night for months, and for relative results. This training only did wonders on particular children clan, who had predispositions towards large chakra reserves. For others, there were more constructive manners to train: Hyūgas learned Gentle Fist, Uchihas learned Katon techniques, Sarutobis learned how to control wind chakra... And Yūhis had been slaughtered beyong repair in the span of a few generations, burned by wars they had been so useful in, and so keen to die for their lands.

Hitomi stood unmoving in the clearing for a while, persuading her chakra to go and concentrate in her legs. Once she was ready, she rushed towards the tree she had chosen, an oak that stood high among its peers. It took her a few steps to reach the roots, and then she had to let adrenaline do its work to protect her from her insctive fear of falling down. She started climbing. It took her a few tentative steps to learn how much chakra she had to put in her feet to grip the tree without damaging the bark of the tree, but then she climbed without stopping all the way to the top. She dug her kunai at the highest point she could reach and settled on a branch wide enough to bear her weight.

"Is it supposed to be that easy? Can we start walking on water now?"

Her smugness caused Ensui to laugh heartily. He had expected it. Chakra control exercises were pretty much all the same and once someone had mastered one of them, it was easy enough to conquer the rest of them. Still, he was slightly surprised. He reached cautiously for his meridians, and scanned her apprentice. He was astounded to find that her chakra reserves, once quite tiny, were roaring, ready for battle. He had not expected such good progress from her and once again, he was proud.

She had to try and walk on water next, as she had guessed, and it was harder than climbing trees. She had to constantly adjust the quantity of chakra she projected to move with the water, and she also had to compensate for the liquid's lack of tension. It took her a few more weeks to master it and in the meantime, she reached the point where her reserves would not expand further no matter how hard she pushed them.

So then, Ensui decided that it was time for her to learn her clan techniques basics. Most clan children from Konoha learned the basics of their familial ninjutsu at that age. Inside Nara clan, however, the concept was pushed further. Even civilians had to learn the theory: thus, if a war came and all adults were killed, leaving their children without Nara master to guide them, a civilian could still pass along the knowledge. It was not ideal, but it was something, and better than what the other clans had done. Who remembered Uzumaki techniques now, besides their rare surviving victims?

"Shadows are the best asset of our clan," Ensui said one night, while their small campfire projected a shady light on their cave's walls.

It was raining again outside, but spring was here at last, giving back to the nature its soft, green shades and its clean smell. Ensui didn't say, but Hitomi knew that in a few months, he would bring her back to Konoha. Before summer, she would be able to see her family again. She was eager and impatient for it to happen, but she was also quite melancholic. She wanted to go back to her family of course, but Ensui had become a very special person to her. She didn't want to lose him.

"I know that you are familiar with your inner mind. This first exercise will force you to go farther than your Library's borders. Go down in your core, until you get here."

He grazed her Gate of Limit with his fingertips, just above her belly button. The little girl's chakra stirred in answer. Closing her eyes, she obeyed his instructions. At once, she found herself in the middle of her Library, the cage she had locked her meridians' perceptions slowly turning in front of her. She turned around and made her way in the rows of shelves, until there were no more shelves and all that was staring at her was darkness beyond the floor she had installed to hold this structure.

She felt like after that, there was only nothingness, a velvety black and tranquil infinity. After taking a deep breath, she let herself fall in the void. The sensation was incredible. She could have stopped her fall any moment, but she was still very far from the Gate Ensui had told her to reach. She could see eight Gates punctuating her meridians, pale blue lightpools in an ocean of darkness.

And finally, she put her hand on it. A surge of energy roamed through her and, in the physical world, chakra started to pour through every cell of her skin. Without her huge reserves for her age, the effort would have killed her in a few minutes.

"That's where the inconscious link between you and your shadow lays. Find this link."

Obeying to Ensui had become second nature during all the time they had spent together. Sometimes, his instructions didn't really make sense at first. She had to reach the goal he had pointed to her to understand how right he had been. And again, she had to reach the precise spot of her Goor, where her body gave way to her shadow, to really understand the link he had been talking about.

In the physical world, her shadow reacted violently to her contact, writhing far beyond the space that was lightened by the fire, darker than the cave's walls. Her breath caught for a moment, then her slow breathing resumed. She was so peaceful one could have thought she was sleeping, had she been laying down.

"Your shadow is an indolent fire, but a fire nonetheless. It will harm you if you take it for granted and lack prudence, if you disrespect it. Starting tonight, you will meditate for an hour in your Gate of Limit, until you're able to stretch your shadow at will.

That night, and the next twelve ones, she failed. On the fourteenth night, however, under her master's watchful gaze, she managed to stretch her shadow until it touched his. Its contours were neat, and the dark stretch didn't seem to come back to her like a snapping rubber band — the sensations were really alike, and just as unpleasant.

"Congratulations," Ensui murmured in a very proud tone. "You're ready for the next step. Tomorrow."

The next day, they didn't wait for night to arrive to begin their training. Instead of honing her fighting skills as Hitomi had been instructed to do since she couldn't stretch her chakra reserves anymore, he made her stand very still in front of her, in the middle of a sun patch. Spring had taken back all of its rights on the Land of Fire, and once or twice they had stopped in an inn for the night.

"You're now able to make your shadow obey your will while meditating. It was the hardest part of this training, and you did it in a very respectable timespan. I didn't expect any less from Shikano's daughter."

He had not talked about Hitomi's father since months, having told his student everything he knew about him. Hearing his name surprised the little girl for a second, and then she raised her chin and squarred her shoulders, a tranquil pride on her face.

"Now you have to find a shortcut to this capacity. You have to be able to connect to your shadow instinctively, and make it obey you immediately. I will let you search for the better way yourself. It's your mind, after all."

With a smile, Hitomi went back to her Library, a relieved sigh coming out from her physical lips when she arrived in her mind, safe. Tendrils of light still floated lightly in their crystal cage, as they did everytime she visited, and she felt a deep peace. Her body slowly raised her hands, her left hand's fingers wrapping around her right hand's raised index and middle finger. Rat handseal.

It had to be something she could touch as soon as she arrived in her Library, in a blink. The only thing that met the requirement was the pillar her cage was on. On one face, she engraved the emblematic animals of her two clans. A cat for Yūhi, and a deer for Nara. She had learned this kind of information about her mother's clan while talking with Ensui, but he didn't know everything. The only way to learn more would be to go and see her grandfather once he was back from his mission. She hadn't seen him since the day after Kyūbi's attack, and she was not supposed to remember it.

"You're getting there," Ensui murmured in a hoarse voice in the physical world.

It was always strange when she was in her Library. She was not totally cut from the outside world, could hear, feel, smell, but only saw the infinity of books around her. Kneeling in front of the two emblems, she chose the spot carefully, halway between their glances. It was there. The place she could touch in a blink and that would allow her to call her shadow.

In her mind's world, everything was possible. She could give to chakra a physical, constant form, that wouldn't be too taxing for her core. Under her fingers, a long, pale blue ribbon appeared, gently casting its light on the floor. And from then, it slithered in the abyss, this limit of her library that plunged into complete darkness. But the darkness was not total now, not with this long line of light. Hitomi knew that if she jumped to follow it, she would find her Gate of Limit again, and this intimate place where the shadow became her and she became the shadow.

She straightened her back and closed her hand on the blue ribbon. Instantly, her shadow stretched and caught Ensui's. It only lasted for a few seconds — the skill burned down a lot of chakra, and the stronger the target, the more expensive the cost. She went back to her senses and did a few tests, making sure she could seize the link just by doing the Rat handseal and make her shadow obey.

"It seems like you're ready."

The little girl froze and looked at her master, her hands slowling returning to her sides. Her obedient shadow went back to her, back to normal. "I... Ready?"

"Yes," Ensui sighed. "You didn't think I would keep you far from the village forever, right?"

Astounded, she shook her head, stiffly and shakily. As if he understood her sudden distress, Ensui knelt to be the same size as her and raised her chin with his fingertips, delicately and tenderly.

"I'm not going anywhere, all right? I left active service the day I went home from my mission, just before I took you in. The Third knows I don't respect him enough to be trusted on the battlefield."

It was the first time Ensui had ever admitted in front of Hitomi how complicated his situation in the village was, but she had had plenty of time to guess. She still took her mentor's hand, so much larger and longer than hers, in both of her hands and squeezed as hard as she could. At that moment, she looked like the child she should have been, a confusing sight for her master, who was used to a mature soul in a frail body.

"I will work for your uncle Shikaku, help him manage the clan until Shikamaru is old enough to do it, so he'll be able to focus on his Jōnin Commander duties. I'll have time for you, Hitomi, I swear."

It was a meager comfort to Hitomi. She realized sometimes, as she realized right now, how much danger she would have to face in the future, and she _needed_ Ensui by her side to tackle all of this. Her shoulders shook a bit, her knees fatlered, and...

And she felt another chakra on her skin, a strength she could recognize among thousands. Ensui. During the last few months, he had transmitted a lot of chakra to her, to try and soften her symptoms. His action had always been restrained by her need to empty her reserves so that the trauma would stretch them a bit more every day. The soft feeling of his chakra against hers made her feel better, physically and mentally.

"I'll always be there to watch you grow up, Hitomi. I will always be there."

And then he hugged her warmly, comforting her, and she closed her eyes, lulled by his arms.


	15. Back to the Village

Hitomi had enough control over her chakra, and reserves large enough, to be able to travel at a decent speed. It took her a few days to master running in the trees, as per Konoha's fashion, but she quickly got the hang of it and chased after Ensui, who took advantage of those last few days together to ensure she was as sharp as possible. Without admitting it, he took slight detours on their way, insisting to stop in inns every night, so that their time together would stretch even a little bit.

Hitomi saw through this and didn't hold it against him. She had the same feeling, the same need, and the way Ensui managed it for both of them was fine by her. It was easier that way, after all. While travelling, he quizzed her on her knowledge and told her about the training he had planned for her while she was in the Academy. Since they would have access to their village's resources, it could include advanced chemistry, and Hitomi couldn't wait. She now had a soft spot for everything that exploded, burned, singed and smoked.

And finally, they reached their destination. The huge doors of Konoha stood before them. His hand on his student's shoulder, Ensui stopped her before they could enter the village properly.

"How are your meridians?"

The tendrils of light hadn't spaced from their cage in weeks, and he knew that. It was his last method to delay the inevitable. Obediently, the little girl closed her eyes and glanced at the pillar and the cage in the midst of her mind. On the face of the pillar, the cat and the deer stared at each other, and a long tendril of blue light slithered at her feet until it was lost in the darkness. She slipped her fingers through the cage's bars, stroked a tendril of night and took a deep breath while analyzing the informations it transmitted to her on nearby ninjas.

"Everything is fine, shishou."

He gave a satisfied nod and authorized her to go through the village doors with a slight push. While she looked around in curiosity, he signed the register with the guard shinobi. When she had left, over a year and a half ago, Hitomi was in too much pain to really pay attention to her surroundings. She was fine this time and she looked eagerly and took note of everything that was around her.

A few minutes later, she was walking towards Nara territory with her master. The only thing that betrayed their bond was the way they walked; the youngest was slightly behind. It was so subtle that only high-rank ninjas or ninjas that had had a master too would be able to understand what their discreet glances meant. Some Jōnins stopped to greet Ensui with a nod, but he was obviously not popular enough for them to actually say a few words. Noticing that, Hitomi gritted her teeth. Apparently, her master was a hero solely in the midst of his clan.

Finally, they arrived in front of her house, near the clan borders. Checking her cage, Hitomi knew that her mother was inside. She silently opened the door and took off her shoes. Her slippers were still there but seemed so tiny... She went bare feet, drinking in the environment she had dearly missed, deep down.

Her mother as in the kitchen washing dishes. She could see her back, her long hair flowing freely to the small of her back, and she had a plate between her hands. Suddenly, it was too much for Hitomi, the emotions in her throat got bigger and bigger and she burst into tears.

"Mummy!"

She rushed to her mother in a crash of broken china, landing in her arms after a few steps. Her discreet perfume overwhelmed her and she closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. She had walked on a sharp shard of the plate but she didn't care; she knew Ensui would fix it effortlessly. All her strength was focused on hugging her mother as hard as she could, to fill the hole she hadn't even known she had in her heart.

Later, the man, the woman and the child were sitting in the living room. Ensui had claimed the couch to heal Hitomi's wounded foot after her tears had dried up. He had pretended to be unaware of the fact that Kurenai was crying too since he remembered her as a modest woman concerning her feelings. Holding his apprentice's foot between his hands, the greenish medical chakra flowing between his fingers, he listened absently to their conversation.

"And that's how I discovered that we can find water in cacti. Can you imagine, Mum? If I have to go to a desert again, I'll never be thirsty!"

Both adults laughed at the same time, moved by her candour. They were both trained ninjas, used to fulfil missions everywhere in the world for the sake of their village, but Hitomi's innocence was a blessing to them, putting all their knowledge back into perspective, reminding them how extraordinary and precious their knowledge could be.

The rest of the day was wonderful. Ensui left them after a few hours, and mother and daughter worked on reinstalling the youngest in her day-to-day environment. All of her clothes were now too small for her, and the few travel clothes she had was not a suitable option. It took them more than an hour to fold everything and store it inside boxes. Kurenai would donate the clothes to the village's orphanage in a few days.

And it was time for Hitomi to discover what normal life was in Konoha. For the first time, she was allowed to go with her mother in town, outside the clan territory, to buy her clothes. Before her journey, she hadn't been able to go because of her oversensitive meridians and all the foreign chakra that attacked her system. Now, she wasn't bothered in the slightest. She was able to discover the streets Shikamaru, Ino and Chōji had said so much about, to wander peacefully among ninjas and passerby's, without experiencing any pain.

With her mother's benediction, the little girl chose her own clothes. She liked different shades of grey and discreet notes of red. She chose two kimono and a yukata but besides that, she focused on practical clothes for the Academy. After all, school started in only two months... She really couldn't wait.

They had dinner at Shikaku's and Yoshino's house that evening. Shikamaru had a surprising jolt of energy when he saw his cousin at the door and hugged her so tight it hurt a little bit. She couldn't have cared less. He had grown a lot too, and he was almost two inches taller than her. He seemed to have favoured his father on that side since he was tall and slim just like him, but on his face, there was a softness that belonged to Yoshino.

During the meal, she good-naturedly recounted her adventures again. She didn't really share a lot of details about Gaara but made a duty to detail everything else, especially things Shikamaru didn't know about. His eyes were wide with wonder when she talked about the fennec couple she had met during their second travel through the desert, and he wanted to hear everything about Suna's caravan's members.

She had missed him so, so much.

Their evening together dragged on late, with the two children starting a shōgi tournament to try their respective styles that had grown a lot during the last year and a half. Shikamaru had made a lot of progress, and his style now looked a lot like his father's, but Hitomi was no dead weight either since she had played Ensui almost once a day - and more than that when they had been in Suna.

Before she fell asleep, she opened her notebook and wrote to Gaara.

_Dear Gaara, _

_I'm delighted that we're going to start the Academy at the same time. We will be able to compare classmates and teachers if you'd like. Today, I went back to Konoha. It's weird, after being on the road for so long. My mother has had to buy a new wardrobe for me — apparently, I've grown up! _

_I understand that it's difficult for you to be accepted by your siblings. I think they're more familiar with the villager's gossip about you than with you as a person. Show them the wonderful boy you have been with me. You will win them over, especially Temari, if everything you're telling me is true. They will be your best allies, one day, and you will need allies, you know that. Of course, you can still count on me, but I'm too far to be able to help you if something serious and important happened to you. I'd feel more at ease if I knew you have proper allies in Suna._

_For lunch, my mother took me to eat gyōza outside — outside my clan's territory. It was my first time in the rest of the village without a very good reason. Tomorrow, my cousin Shikamaru will show me around the places I don't know yet. Gyōzas, Gaara... I absolutely have to take you to eat some if you come to Konoha someday. It's absolutely delicious._

_I hope you're all right, Gaara. Please take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow._

_Love from, _

_Hitomi Yūhi._

After writing her little letter, the child infused the page she had written on with chakra to send the letter to its twin. She was exhausted, but it was healthy fatigue, caused by emotions that soothed her soul. In the guest room, right next to Shikamaru's, she closed her eyes and drifted into sleep, incredibly tired.

The next morning, Shikamaru held his promise from the previous day. Konoha was gorgeous, shining like a gem under the laughing rays of the sun, and Hitomi was delighted to be finally able to discover her village's secrets, the places where children gathered to play ninja, and where their parents waited for them discussing politics and their past missions. Children here had a lot of freedom. In the Previous World, nobody would have thought to leave five or six years old children to wander around unwatched. But cars weren't a thing here — even horses were a rare occurrence, sign of nobleness — and security was very tight, with police and General Forces, composed of Genin that hadn't managed to pass their Jōnin-sensei's test when graduating from the Academy. Those Genin weren't likely to be promoted one day.

Once she was alone with her cousin, Hitomi gifted him with one of the communicating notebooks she had made when she had left Suna. He was astounded by the possibilities this new way of communicating offered, trying to convince his elder to sell the concept to the Research and Development department of Konoha. She had thought about this at length, but the notebooks weren't exactly practical for ninjas on a mission. She had been thinking for a few weeks about another form of communication that would use seals as well, but she had yet to find the perfect idea.

Then, she showed him the other things she had learned. He looked at her tantō respectfully but refused to take it in hand. While Hitomi was absolutely made for a frontline position in a fight, Shikamaru was definitely not. He would be far more efficient if he was hidden behind the frontline. Most children didn't think about that at his age, but he was a Nara, and he had been trained in strategy virtually in the crib. Thus, he was extremely interested in Hitomi's new field control skills. The flash bombs she had learned how to make recently would be particularly useful for him since he would be able to stretch his shadow for a second. A second was enough. Once the connection was made, it was only broken by lack of chakra or a physical barrier, like a Doton wall surging from the ground.

Both children talked about their Academy strategy while catching up. Most aspiring ninjas shared a goal: to do their best. But Naras didn't raise their children like everyone else, it was well known. Shikamaru, for example, had decided to stay average during all of his education. That asked for intelligence, patience and a calculation ability that was beyond some Chūnins, and even more so since he would pretend it was not on purpose. If things happened as they had in canon, he would succeed and his teachers would never suspect a thing.

Hitomi's problem was different. She was a clan heiress and thus she would probably be part of one of the three teams selected to keep their Jōnin-sensei after the test no one talked about before it was right in front of them. If she guessed correctly and eliminated the right people, she would probably take Sakura's spot and thus she would make sure the civilian child had a backup plan should that happen. Besides, she didn't' really want to only aim for Best Rookie among the kunoichis. It would be easy concerning the paper tests, but the Best Kunoichi title, as opposed to Best Rookie (which was always awarded to boys), didn't come with any glory. She had to leave her mark on her teachers and to do that, the only way was to shine in practical tests. She had to be where she wasn't expected, and push herself forward every day without showing any sign of weariness. Fortunately, it was what Ensui had expected of her those last eighteen months.

She shared this reflexion with Shikamaru. He would be her best ally in the Academy, after all. He had been able to meet the other children beyond the clan territory since he was four, and she had not had this possibility. She knew Chōji and Ino and her own clan and that was it. But thanks to her cousin's help and some of her plans, she hoped it would change for the best.

But then she had yet another problem. She wasn't really gifted with direct socialization. In her first life, she had been discreet and taciturn and hadn't hesitated to throw off people who wanted to talk to her. She had been lonely and distrustful because of unpleasant events during her childhood. The fact that she had not been bullied since her rebirth would not magically make her socially apt and good at making friends. She didn't know if she would be able to befriend anyone besides the Nara, that were used to particular souls, Ino, who was terribly chatty and amiable, and Chōji, who liked everyone without any reserve or hesitation.

But she still had two months to prepare for that. When time would come, she would be as ready as she could, and do her best to reach her goals. It had to be enough; she couldn't even think about failing.

* * *

Thank you so much, from both Zachanariel and me, for your continued support! And remember, reviews are a balm on our distressed souls.


	16. The Academy

Finally, it was time to start school. Hitomi was nervous and impatient. She had spent the last two months getting used again to a sedentary lifestile, but also working on her chemistry. With Ensui, whom had held to his word and was staying around, she had designed several types of flash bombs with various ranges and blinding capacities, and smoke bombs that could be six different colours. He had also made her practise her accuracy with throwing weapons, arguing that if she was about to throw nasty things to her enemies' heads, she had to be accurate.

The fact that she was one year older than her classmates would either prove to be an asset or an inconvenience. Either children would think she was a lot more experienced than them — she remembered that one year older was virtually a whole life ahead at that age — either they would think she had started school later than them because she was less able than the other aspiring ninjas. It would all be decided in the first days of school, and she had to do her best to make good impressions. Her skin, still a little tanned from Suna's sun, would probably give a little adventurous strike to her person, but it would not be enough to convince the children.

The little girl's anxiety lowered a bit when she was her mother waiting for her down the stairs. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, Hitomi hugged Kurenai, and the latter sprung her around in a proud embrace. Oh, the child knew how proud the kunoichi was to see her daughter take her first steps towards her life as a ninja, even though Hitomi thought her first steps had been made with Ensui. The Will of Fire was all about being transmitted to the younger generation.

"Go and greet the sun, breakfast will be there when you'll come back. Uncle Shikaku will be here in an hour. We'll go to the Academy with him and Shikamaru. You want to share this big day with him, right?"

Hitomi nodded, feeling a warm softness rise in her under her mother's clear-sightedness and attentions. She sometimes didn't see herself as a child, as someone who needed parents, while hers had not been around in her first life, but sometimes, like in this moment, she had no difficulty to remember how Kurenai was precious to her, and how far she would go to protect her.

One hour later, Hitomi was walking in Konoha's streets in a determined gait, chatting with Shikaku and holding the Nara heir's arm. She had not given her cousin any choice in the matter, and he was doing his best to look like he was a torture victim. School was a lot of trouble 'for nothing', or so he liked to say. Truly, he wanted to become a ninja and protect his kin, just like her. His laziness was half because he wanted to fit in his clan, and half because of his intellect, which tended to exhaust him fairly quickly. When he closed his eyes for more than a minute, unless he was stressed, he fell asleep wherever he was.

Those last few weeks, to her own surprise, the little girl had found herself wanting to fit in among her generation's ninjas. Shikamaru would always be her friend and family, but she wanted more, and didn't want to be forced to drag her poor cousin around while executing her messed up plans. She wanted true friendship, be reassured by other people's presence, be part of the group she had discovered while reading the manga. She was tired of being lonely.

A stage had been set in the Academy's courtyard. People were already there, and they were a lot; at least a hundred future students were there, and it was much larger than Hitomi would have guessed. And yet, she knew that six years from now, only twenty-seven — or twenty-eight if she counted herself — would graduate. And in this small pool of people, only nine would be able to be promoted in classical military forces.

Kurenai bent over and took her daughter in her arms, putting her on her shoulders so she could see even in the midst of the crowd. She was a big too old for this kind of things, but her mother didn't seem bothered at all by the extra weight, and the child was grateful for the gesture. Thus she was able to see the Hokage on the stage, for the first time ever. He looked frail, especially in this huge white and red outfit, old and tired. Yet, when he began his speech, his face lit up with pride and energy, and Hitomi finally understood why he was called 'The Professer' as an honorific.

In a respectful silence, the young recruits listened to the leader of the village talk about the Will of Fire, about this hopeful day which showed it passed on to a new generation. Hitomi, her eyes trained on the stage, was taking in the faces of the professors aligned behind the Hokage, their backs held straight and chins high. She immediately noticed Iruka, who seemed so young, and Mizuki, against whom she couldn't do anything. Seeing him with his small smirk, she had to contain a violent urge. She had no chance against him right now, and even if she had any... She would never prevent Naruto from learning the Multiclonage.

The speech was short, but Hitomi had enough time to grasp its subtilities. When the Hokage was speeking, she saw the war chief in him, the prodigy in strength and control that could invoke Death itself and bend it to his will, and who would make every sacrifice required to achieve his plans. Compared to him, she could see how far she had yet to advance. Of course, his speech was full of propaganda; she had expected it from the school that trained the Land of Fire's warriors. Despite Konoha's timorous reputation, they weren't above filling their children's head with a doctrine that would make them put their life on the line to defend them.

Once the Hokage's speech was over — she wondered if he wrote a new one every year — another teacher took a few steps forwards, a list in his hand, and started making a call to divide children among three classes. Hitomi was surprised with the lack of equality in the classe's repartition. Clan children, and her, were all called in the first class. Civilians filled in until they were thirty pupils, but it couldn't be a coincidence.

The classroom Iruka led them too was big, with huge patio doors as windows. It was quite common in Konoha, since ninjas often travelled to this height. In a few years, if Kurenai's word was to be trusted, the pupils would be able to use these windows in case of emergency. If not, they had to use the door like everyone else.

Hitomi immediately noticed two children that she knew were Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyūga, sat in the last row of the classroom. It was a sign of wisdom, and not laziness. What kind of ninja would have to sit in front of people, who would then be in their backs ? Clan children knew about those things. The little girl grabbed her cousin's hand, and he grabbed Chōji, and she went to sit next to Hinata. Together, they took almost every spot in the back row and could see clearly the rest of the classroom, which was built like an auditorium. The back row was thus the highest.

The day started peacefully... Too peacefully. Iruka-sensei's explanations were very classic; timetables, furnitures, compulsory classes, class rules... Hitomi got bored, and she couldn't stand being bored. She discreetly fished her notebook from her bag. It had become cold during the Hokage's speech, but she hadn't had the chance to open it yet.

_Dear Hitomi,_

_Have your classes started already? They have here, and I'm bored. I'm alone in the back of the classroom and I feel like I shouldn't, but Ensui always told us to keep an eye on our surroundings, right? There's nobody in my class that I trust enough for that. They all look at me weirdly, as if I'd suddenly get angry and hurt them._

_The worst thing is that a long time ago, it could have happened. Before I met you, I was so angry at them, all the time. I didn't understand why they left me on my own, why they didn't want to play with me. I've never wanted to hurt them, but sometimes my sand would accidentally... You know what I'm talking about._

_I've tried to talk to Temari this morning when she took me to the Academy. She was alone, so... I don't know. It was easier, I guess. I asked her how she was doing and thanked her for taking me with her. She looked so surprised! But she didn't seem angry. I guess you're right about her._

_My teacher is a bit weird, but I think I'll like him fine enough. Well, we're bored right now, but he doesn't seem too strict. The boy sitting in front of me is sleeping and he hasn't done anything to wake him up._

_I can't wait to hear from you, _

_Gaara._

With a soft smile on her lips, she started writing her answer. She described Iruka-sensei, who was actually yelling on Kiba and Naruto. She explained the genjutsu of the over-sized head, that the teacher seemed to use as an intimidation method. To her, it made him look like a cartoon character, but she felt a shiver run in the front rows.

Shikamaru was not following the class either. He was asleep on the notebook his cousin had given him, relaxed. He was adorable like that. She looked to her right and caught Hinata's eyes. She tried to smile softly, but she knew deep down that the Hyūga heiress was far to shy to relax at the first sign of kindness.

At ten o'clock, children had a quarter hour of freedom before going back to class. Hitomi gathered her courage and took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders as if to make herself seem bigger. It couldn't be that hard.

"Hi! You're a Hyūga, right? What's your name? I'm Hitomi Yūhi!"

She probably sounded a bit weird, but tried to reassure herself by thinking it was just expected from Naras. Their reputation had been made decades ago, after all, and Hitomi had chosen a tunic with her clan's crest on it for her first day of school, like Shikamaru.

"Hi-Hinata."

"Nice to meet you! And you're an Aburame, right? What's your name?"

"My name is Shino. My father often works with your clan. Your woods have a lot of interesting insect colonies."

This didn't surprise the little girl in the slightest. Naras, Akimichis and Yamanakas often worked together, inside and outside the village, to recreate ecosystems that were good for plants growth, and they neded the plants to make the village's medicine. It was a big piece of work, in which a lot of civilians from the three clan specialized, but really precious to ninjas, and it attracted a lot of rare insects.

In the end, despite her panic, fears and anguish, it was as simple as that. The two children followed her when she went out of the classroom and they all talked about themselves a bit more until they reach the inner courtyard of the Academy. Shikamaru and Chōji were following a little farther back. Ino had drowned herself in the crowd at the very beginning of the day, and Hitomi knew her enough to know that she would soon be the little queen bee of this new world.

After the brief recess, of which the children took advantage to explore the courtyard and find some quiet corners, Iruka decided it was time for the pupils to introduct themselves to class. He started calling them in alphabetical order, starting with Shino Aburame, while Hitomi waited for her turn, anxiety making knots in her stomach. She would be among the last pupils to talk with her last name. Once she recovered from her fear, she listened to the others and stored the informations about them. Their name, their age, their hobbies, what they liked and disliked. Soon enough, a little bond-haired boy talked, and she recognized him immediately.

"...And one day, I'll be Hokage, you'll see!"

The classroom's atmosphere slowly relaxed, while Iruka-sensei still seemed a bit tense. Several boys, with whom Naruto had played during recess, threw him friendly smiles. Hitomi's heart broke, since she knew that after today, it wouldn't happen again. Once the children would go home and their parents would repriment them about the demon-fox — Konoha's best kept secret, right? — they would never play with him again.

"Yūhi Hitomi!"

The little girl obediently stood up, doing her best to hold herself straight and proudly, both feet firmly planted on the floor, and with a relaxed shoulderline, as Ensui had taught her. It made her seem bigger, and hid her fear.

"Hello! My name is Hitomi Yūhi. I'm seven years old and my hobbies are reading and training. I like shōgi, my family and my clan, but I don't like red bean paste and staying stuck on a problem. My dream is to become a world-famous Seal Mistress. Nice to meet you all."

Most of the children didn't know anything about fūinjutsu, but Iruka knew the basics, as every graduated ninja did. He laid a surprised and searching look on the little girl, and she held his gaze before sitting down again. Shikamaru gently patted her thigh as comfort: he knew she didn't like to talk in front of a crowd, and according to their standards, thirty people were definitely a crowd.

The noon break came fast. Hitomi nudged gently Shikamaru to wake him up, careful not to hurt him, then turned to Hinata and Shino, that had fished their bentōs out of their backpacks.

"Hm, it was nice this morning. Would you like for us to eat together?"

While the two children accepted, she wondered how the other managed to socialize naturally. Weren't they anxious? One glance to Hinata, whose cheeks were reddening again, gave her an answer. They were anxious too. Well, at least she wasn't the only one. She turned to Shikamaru to offer him to come with them, but before she could say anything, he stratched his neck, embarrassed.

"Hm... Would you mind if I went with Chōji to see Ino? Our parents want us to become closer during the Academy... It's troublesome, but we should start right now or else my mum will get angry and..."

She interrupted him, nodding and smiling. She wouldn't be alone, after all. And even if she had been... She could take a little loneliness once in a while.

"Just write in your notebook if you need me."

She never parted with hers, and wasn't about to start today. Since she now had two penpals, she had dedicated a few pages to each, limiting their spaces with another seal. After getting her own bentō, she followed her two new friends to the outside courtyard this time. This one was bigger and had a lot more trees and hidden corners, but the pupils were only allowed to go there during their meals.

The children quickly found an isolated tree that could provide them with a large shadow. Hitomi sat on a root, her back against the trunk, and opened her bentō, watching her classmates do the same. Naras had taken over the Akimichi tradition that said to always make more food than what you need, and Kurenai had made a point to make a bentō that her daughter could share with her friends. In the end, they decided to share the three boxes and eat what they wanted to eat, while chatting lightly among themselves.

Shino, far more chatty now that the rest of the class wasn't around and listening, talked about his clan, their traditions and what civilians did. This kind of things was different among each clan, and the subject was fascinating to Hitomi. About ten minutes later, they talked about why the little girl had had to wait a whole year before starting the Academy.

"I have a disease that affects my chakra and it could have prevented me from being a ninja. Fortunately, a man from my clan who has the same disease, came back from a long mission in another country just in time to take me under his wing. He taught me how to control it... Actually, he taught me a bunch of things so I didn't feel sad because I had to start the Academy late."

"W-what kind of things?"

Hinata had not spoken much, and she had definitely not talked about herself. Knowing the Hyūgas, Hitomi knew that she had been scared into not revealing anything about the clan in school. Since she was clearly an introvert from the start, it probably didn't take much to force her to keep quiet. With a kind smile to try and soften the anxiety she perceived from her comrade, she answered her question.

"Taijutsu and kenjutsu basics, a lot of chakra control exercises, fūinjutsu... This kind of things."

She was voluntarily vague and didn't talk about any detail. Ensui had taught her about how good secrets were, especially concerning her own capacities. Only her strongest allies would be allowed to know them, so they could work properly together, but she had to say just enough to impress to the others, and to little to give away any weakness. Even though she doubted Hinata or Shino wanted to hurt her, it couldn't hurt to make a habit out of this.

They chatted until the end of the break. Hitomi had had enough time to talk to them about Suna and her friend Gaara — nobody knew that name in Konoha, and she purposely didn't say anything about his demon .She also talked about Ensui, immensely proud to see they knew him by reputation, even though they hadn't heard anything about her feud with the Hokage. Of course, people didn't talk much about that. They'd rather not share their leader's failures.

When they all came back to class, hidden sheets of paper had been put on their desks. A test, already? Hitomi shared a disillusioned look with Shikamaru. When she had wanted to start the Academy so much, she hadn't paid much thought to this kind of things, but it was so boring... Sighing sightly, she went back to her spot near the back of the classroom and listened to the instructions.

It took her about ten minutes to finish the test, while they had two hours to finish it. Most questions were simply to assess their skills in writing and reading, and their general knowledge. All those matters had been taken in capable hands by her mother, and Ensui. From the corner of her eye, the little girl saw her cousin answer exactly the right amount of questions to have an average note, then answer wrongly to everything else. Simultaneously, they put their pens down, crossed their arms on their tables and rested their heads on them.

While Shikamaru napped again, Hitomi went through her plans concerning this era of her life. The next day, if everything went according to plan, she would talk to Naruto and convince him to be her friend. She would easily convince Shikamaru, Ino and Chōji to do the same thing. She would probably have a bit more trouble with Hinata and Shino, because both of them always respected what their parents told them. That said, she wasn't resourceless, and maybe she would be able to convince them despite that... Yes, she had to think about it.

When the bell rung, signifying the end of classes for the day, she opened her eyes and woke up Shikamaru by pressing his shoulder. She watched him stretch carefully before putting his belongings in his bag. They left their tests on Iruka-sensei's desk as they left and Hitomi said goodbye to Shino and Hinata before following her cousin to the way out.

In front of the Academy's gate, she was surprised to see that her mother wasn't alone: Shikamaru's, Ino's and Chōji's parents were waiting for them too. They were probably there to take them to one of the clan parties the children had learned about. They had only been to the actual parties once or twice in their lives. After all, four children of the Three Clan Alliance, as they were sometimes called, going for the first time to the Academy together, was a rare occurrence.

As Hitomi had suspected, there was a party brewing. She had to obey to Kurenai, who decided that the day was important enough to deserve traditionnal kimono, and taught her daughter how to wear it. Her long, black hair was held in a bun, a few strands of hair softly curling on her neck and shoulders. Looking at herself in the mirror, Hitomi couldn't see the kunoichi she intended to become... Which was perfect. A good ninja was a ninja who was able to be undeteceted in any situation.

The Akimichi clan had a chain of restaurants that could be found on the whole continent, but the oldest of them was in the main street of Konoha. One couldn't get a table unless they had reserved it for weeks, and even if they had, they still had to pay a lot of money. Unsurprisingly, that was where the party took place. The whole restaurant had been closed for the night, to welcome the three clan's members that wanted to be there to pay their respect to the new generation.

Ensui was among them. Hitomi saw him often, but it wasn't the same thing since it wasn't just the two of them, and she missed him. Delighted to see him in his Jōnin uniform — he only wore the jacket for special occaisons — she rushed to hug him, a bright smile on her lips. With a small, low laugh, he closed his arms around her and held tight.

The next few minutes were dedicated to a description of her first day. Her attentive master listened to everything she had to say, from the test, the introductions, her new friends, to Naruto. He already knew how her apprentice felt about the way the village treated the jinchūriki. He also thought that the old generation was incredibly stupid. How could they expect the young boy to want to find for them, and his village, if everything he had from them was coldness and indifference?

Then, the guests and the kings and queen of the party took their seats. For the first time, the children were seated at the honour table, next to their parents. It was weird to them, and they commented about it among themselves with small giggles. The food was delicious, of course, and there was plenty of it; it was an Akimichi restaurant, after all. There was a lot of rice wine for the adults, while the children obediently drank juice.

A bit later, it was time for the presents. The informal atmosphere was also reigning in this little ceremony. Every child had to sit in a chair, in the middle of the room, and the four of them waited for the adults to give them things. Hitomi got a calligraphy set from her mother, a chemistry kit from Ensui so she could do experiments without having to steal anything from Konoha's labs, and she got several rare-looking fūinjutsu books from Shikaku. Other people gave them presents, mostly clothes and weapons, but none of them held as much value as the first three gifts, not even the bun pin set with rubies that you could transform in a deadly weapon with a slight pressure.

She went to bed late that evening, a delighted smile on her lips, and slept until the morning without interruption. It was rare enough for her to notice. Her sleep had always been very light, since she spent her nights in her Library and she could go out of it instantly. It was as if a part of her mind never really rested.

That night was no exception; she spent most of the night wandering around the shelves, opening one book or another to browse through. And yet, when she woke up, she felt rested and ready to tackle on the day, which could be harder even than the previous day. After all, she had a jinchūriki to approach, and that couldn't be very easy.

* * *

_So, um. Hi! Haven't been there for a month. I should probably get rid of the dust that's settled here. What can I say for myself? Well, for one, I'm a dreadful person. So, there's that. Also, I'm terrible at following schedules of any kind. And I have a very small child quarantined here with me, and guess what? I got Covid-19! It was slightly unpleasant to say the least but fortunately everybody is well in my household, as I very sincerely hope you are, too. _

_Cheers! _


End file.
